Exchange Servers

Exchange Servers:-
              Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of theMicrosoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products.Microsoft Exchange Server is the brand name for Microsoft's email server software and is typically found in corporations running Microsoft Windows Server. In addition to email Exchange Servers also provide centralized company address books, shared calendars and web browser access.
             

 Versions of Exchange Servers:

Exchange 1.0:-

             Windows Messaging, initially called Microsoft Exchange, is an e-mail client that was included with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0.Microsoft Exchange gained wider usage with the release of Windows 95, as this was the only e-mail client that came bundled with it.          

Exchange Server 4.0

                Microsoft began a preliminary planning of the Exchange 4.0 migration in April 1993 and finally all 32,000 Microsoft mailboxes successfully migrated to Exchange and Microsoft Exchange shipped in April 1996.It is upgrade to Microsoft Mail 3.5. The original version of Microsoft Mail (written by Microsoft) had been replaced, several weeks after Lotus acquired cc:Mail, by a package called Network Courier, acquired during the purchase of Consumer Software.

Exchange Server 5.0

                 Exchange Server 5.0 was released on May 23, 1997,which introduced the new Exchange Administrator console, as well as opening up "integrated" access to SMTP-based networks for the first time. Unlike Microsoft Mail ,Exchange Server 5.0 could, with the help of an add-in called the Internet Mail Connector, communicate directly with servers using SMTP. Version 5.0 also introduced a new Web-based e-mail interface called Exchange Web Access, which was re branded as Outlook Web Access in a later Service pack.

Exchange Server 5.5

Exchange Server 5.5 was introduced November 1997, was sold in two editions, Standard and Enterprise. They differ in database store size, mail transport connectors and clustering capabilities.The Standard Edition includes the Site Connector, MS Mail Connector, Internet Mail Service, and Internet News Service , as well as software to interoperate with cc:Mail, Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise. The Standard Edition had the same 16 GB database size limitation as earlier versions of Exchange Server, while the Enterprise Edition had an increased limit of 16 TB. 

Exchange 2000 Server

Exchange 2000 Server v6.0, released on November 29, 2000, overcame many of the limitations of its predecessors. For example, it raised the maximum sizes of databases and increased the number of servers in a cluster from two to four. However, many customers were deterred from upgrading by the requirement for a full Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure to be in place, as unlike Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange 2000 Server had no built-in Directory Service, and had a dependency upon Active Directory.

 Exchange Server 2003

           Exchange Server 2003 v6.5, debuted on September 28, 2003. Exchange Server 2003  Service Pack 2 can be run on Windows 2000 Server (only if Service Pack 4 is first installed) and 32-bit Windows Server 2003, although some new features only work with the latter. Like Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 has many compatibility modes to allow users to slowly migrate to the new system. This is useful in large companies with distributed Exchange Server environments who cannot afford the downtime and expense that comes with a complete migration.

     Filtering methods are added here these are

               --Connection filtering 

               --Recipient filtering 

               --Sender ID filtering 

               --Intelligent Message Filter

Exchange Server 2007

            Exchange Server 2007  Service Pack 3 was released on November 30, 2006, to business customers as part of Microsoft's roll-out wave of new products. It includes new clustering options, 64-bit support for greater scalability, voice mail integration, better search and support for Web services, better filtering options, and a new Outlook Web Access interface. Exchange 2007 also dropped support for Exchange 5.50 migrations, routing groups, admin groups, Outlook Mobile Access, X.400, and some API interfaces, amongst other features.

      New features

• Protection: anti-spam, antivirus, compliance, clustering with data replication, improved security and encryption
• Improved Information Worker Access: improved calendaring, unified messaging, improved mobility, improved web access
• Improved IT Experience: 64-bit performance & scalability, command-line shell & simplified GUI, improved deployment, role separation, simplified routing
• Exchange Management Shell: a new command-line shell and scripting language for system administration (based on Windows PowerShell).
• "Unified Messaging" that lets users receive voice mail, e-mail, and faxes in their mailboxes, and lets them access their mailboxes from cell phones and other wireless devices. Voice commands can be given to control and listen to e-mail over the phone.
• Increased the database maximum size limit. Database size is now limited to 16TB per database[21]
• Increased the maximum number of storage groups and mail databases per server, to 5 each for Standard Edition (from 1 each in Exchange Server 2003 Standard), and to 50 each for Enterprise Edition (from 4 groups and 20 databases in Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise).
• You can configure Outlook Anywhere (formerly known as RPC over HTTP) to provide external access to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for your clients.

Exchange Server 2010

             Exchange Server 2010 was released on May, 2009,Microsoft reached the RTM (Release To Manufacturing) milestone forExchange Server 2010,Exchange Server 2010 (currently at Service Pack 2) is available in two server editions; Standard edition and Enterprise edition.

Exchange Online

           Microsoft Exchange Online is an email, calendar and contacts solution delivered as a cloud service, hosted by Microsoft. It is essentially the same service offered by hosted Exchange providers and it is built on the same technologies as Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange Online provides end users with a familiar email experience across PCs, the Web and mobile devices, while giving IT administrators or small businesses and professionals web-based tools for managing their online deployment.