Microsoft 365

With Exchange Server 2013 Preview available for a few months now and the Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) last week, we're getting a clearer picture all the time of what the New Exchange has in store. At MEC, the Microsoft message was pretty strong around the security and compliance story for Exchange 2013, which is good news of course. But overall, what impresses me more and more is the general simplification of Exchange -- all while providing improved performance and new or enhanced functionality. Exchange 2013's simplicity appears both in its architecture and management tools. For the architecture, the big news is that the number of server roles has been reduced from five to two. You'll have to deploy only Mailbox servers and Client Access servers; the functions of the Hub Transport and Unified Messaging servers have been rolled into one or the other of the two remaining. As for the Edge Transport, while it won't be present in Exchange Server 2013 at launch, I've heard some rumors that it might be reintroduced in some form perhaps along with service pack 1 (SP1). In the meantime, Exchange 2013 can function with Edge servers from Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2007 if you've deployed them in your environment.

byB. K. Winstead