30 Minute Interview

Everything you wanted to know about Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is the latest avatar of Microsoft Exchange Server; a software solution for e-mail, calendaring and unified messaging. Microsoft is pushing this server as a key piece of technology for unified communications. Radhesh Balakrishnan, Director - Competitive Strategy, Microsoft India Pvt Ltd talks to Abhinav Singh about Microsoft’s Exchange Server and the company’s strategy for the Indian market. Sujit Mohanty, Assistant Vice President and Director, Sonata Information Technology Limited chips in talking about the Centre of Excellence (CoE) that Sonata has set up along with Microsoft.

Radhesh Balakrishnan

Challenges businesses face vis-à-vis messaging and the unified communications

Balakrishnan: For most businesses today, e-mail is the mission-critical communications tool that allows employees to produce the best results. As working environments change and security and compliance requirements continue to be ‘top of mind’, organizations are looking for solutions that will help them meet these challenges. Due to the increasing pressure of globalization, suppliers and customers are part of a single integrated supply chain and they need to communicate effectively in a single supply chain. Collaboration amongst teams is therefore vital for organizations across the globe. However at the same time they want protection from viruses and spam threats while collaborating as they share confidential data over e-mail and want to adhere to the communications rights associated with e-mail messages. Additionally the mobile workforce wants access to corporate mail while on the move and this has to be as efficient as it can be.

About Exchange Server 2007

Balakrishnan: Keeping different messaging challenges in mind we wanted to provide organizations with an appropriate messaging infrastructure that enables collaboration. The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 has built-in anti-virus, anti-spam and an engine built around compliance. These features include safe sender aggregation, mail flow rules and cross-organizational mailbox search. Additionally Exchange Server 2007 has been natively designed for the x64 architecture and it is possible to have more mailboxes and more messaging databases within the same physical server than before. The new version will help organizations get more from their hardware, software and network investments through the power of x64 computing and bandwidth-optimizing routing algorithms. It would be easier for system administrators to find and fix problems and automate tasks. Exchange Server 2007 also facilitates identity management for uniform communications, which includes integrated management of network identity, messaging and collaboration infrastructure from a single console. The new server will also give anywhere access for employees as they will be able to access their e-mail, voice mail, calendars and contacts using a variety of clients and devices. Other features include unified messaging, speech-enabled auto-attendant, calendar concierge and self-service remote device wipe. Broadly speaking Exchange Server 2007 will substantially increase the productivity of employees, who require the ability to respond quickly at home, at work or on the go as it will offer them a single universal inbox from which to access all their important communications including voice mail, fax and e-mail. It will also deliver fast and seamless access to the familiar Microsoft Office Outlook interface across different devices and clients with no requirement for extra software or services other than an Internet connection thereby improving collaboration and productivity by making it easier to find and share data, documents, and schedules from anywhere.

Rationale for setting up a CoE

Mohanty: Microsoft has set up the Centre of Excellence (COE) for Exchange Server migration, in Bangalore, in collaboration with Sonata. The centre will cater to customers in the southern region. Microsoft will also be opening CoEs in the northern and western regions in collaboration with other partners. The CoEs will develop solutions, tools and applications, which will make migration to the Microsoft platform easy, effective and quick. The CoEs will facilitate customers to migrate to the Windows Server platform, and adopt messaging and collaboration solutions based on Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and BizTalk Server. In this CoE, we will showcase the distinct value proposition of the Microsoft Exchange Platform and the value propositions associated with it.

Early wins

Balakrishnan: We have customers such as Info Edge Ltd and portals such as naukri.com, jeevansaathi.com and 99acres.com that have migrated to the Windows Server platform including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.