Previous | Table of Contents | Next |
Lee Benjamin
Microsoft Exchange Server embraces Internet standards and extends rich messaging and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. As such it is the first client/server messaging system to integrate E-mail, group scheduling, Internet access, discussion groups, rules, electronic forms, and groupware in a single system with centralized management capabilities.
Microsoft Exchange Server provides a complete and scalable messaging infrastructure. It provides a solid foundation for building client/server solutions that gather, organize, share, and deliver information virtually anyway users want it. Microsoft Exchange Server was designed from the ground up to provide users and administrators with unmatched open and secure access to the Internet. Native SMTP support, support for MIME for reliable delivery of Internet mail attachments, and support for Web browsers and HTML ensures seamless Internet connectivity.
Since its introduction in the spring of 1996, customers have been evaluating and deploying Microsoft Exchange Server along with Microsoft Outlook and other clients in record numbers. This chapter offers an overview of how Microsoft Exchange Server can help organizations improve their business processes, work smarter, and increase profits through improved communication. The topics to be covered include:
Microsoft Exchange Server is part of the Microsoft BackOffice integrated family of server products, which are designed to make it easier for organizations to improve decision making and streamline business processes with client/server solutions. The Microsoft BackOffice family includes the Microsoft Windows NT Server network operating system, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SNA Server, and Microsoft Systems Management Server.
Information, both from within organizations and from outside sources, is becoming one of the most valuable commodities in business today. Never before has so much information been so readily available. Nor have there been such high expectations for how much individuals will be able to accomplish with this information. To take advantage of this information, businesses are rethinking every aspect of their operations and reengineering business processes to react more quickly, become more responsive, provide better service, and unify teams separated by thousands of miles and multiple time zones.
Until now, organizations looking for a messaging system had two choices: either a host-based system that provided beneficial administrative capabilities but was costly and did not integrate well with PC-based desktop applications, or a LAN-based system that integrated well with PC-based desktop applications but was not scalable and was less reliable than host systems.
Microsoft Exchange is not a response to any one single product. Rather, it is the evolution of messaging products in general. For the past 10 years, Microsoft has been a leader in LAN messaging solutions. In 1987, Microsoft released the first version of Microsoft Mail. This product was significant in two ways.
First, as a client/server implementation of messaging, Microsoft Mail was a test platform of what Microsoft Exchange Server would become. Second, Microsoft added a programming layer (API) to the product. One might say that this was the grandfather of MAPI, the Messaging Application Programming Interface upon which Exchange is built. Microsoft Mail for PC Networks now has an installed base of well over 10 million copies. Over the years, customers have told Microsoft what they wanted in their nextgeneration messaging system. Microsoft Exchange is that product.
Microsoft Exchange Server delivers the benefits of both LAN-based and host-based E-mail systems and eliminates the shortcomings of each approach. It integrates E-mail, group scheduling, electronic forms, rules, groupware, and built-in support for the Internet on a single platform with centralized management capabilities. Microsoft Exchange Server can provide everyone in the organization, from professional developers to administrators to end-users, with a single point of access to critical business information. It makes messaging easier, more reliable, and more scalable for organizations of all sizes.
Technology is not only changing how businesses process and assimilate information, it is affecting how this information is transferred, viewed, and acted upon. Electronic messaging plays a pivotal role in this process. The annual growth in individual electronic mailboxes is phenomenal. It has been estimated that there was an installed base of more than 100 million mailboxes worldwide at the end of 1996. Five key trends have led to this growth:
Anticipating these trends, Microsoft Exchange Server was developed to unify host-based and LAN-based environments that have historically been separate. Microsoft Exchange Server incorporates both messaging and information sharing in a unified product architecture. By taking advantage of client/server technology, organizations receive the scalability benefits of host-based environments and the flexibility of LAN-based environments.
Previous | Table of Contents | Next |