Exchange Server 2010 Is Here

At the time we’re writing this, Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division, is on stage at Microsoft TechEd Europe 2009 delivering his keynote. The largest focus of the opening keynote is, of course, placed on Information Technology innovations and the evolution of communications. As far as Microsoft is concerned, the company has reached a key milestone, with the commercial availability of Exchange Server 2010, which in some cases was found to deliver cost savings of up to 70%. The promise from the Redmond company is that Exchange Server 2010 will cut down costs while kicking communications protection up a notch and offer evolved email capabilities to corporate customers.

Exchange Server 2010 is designed to work in concert with such products as Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, but also Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Elop noted that IT had to be regarded as a strategic asset which could deliver tangible business productivity boost and cost savings.

“Exchange Server 2010 customers are already reporting cost savings of up to 70 percent thanks to a simplified high-availability model and support for lower-cost storage. Customers are also seeing productivity gains of more than 20 percent with a universal inbox that delivers e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging and text messaging consistently across virtually any device,” Elop noted. “Together with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the combined cost savings and improved productivity helps customers generate long-term business success.”

Microsoft revealed that a range of customers were already deploying Exchange Server 2010 including Bank of America Corp., Carnival Cruise Line, Global Crossing, Lifetime Products, Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., NEC Philips, Subaru Canada Inc., and Telekom Austria Group. Forrester Consulting concluded, in a study commissioned on behalf of Microsoft, that companies would be able to benefit from a payback period of less than half a year, in upgrade scenarios involving Exchange Server 2010 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

“We have increased storage eightfold at 25 percent of the cost with Exchange Server 2010 and our employees are seeing a reduction of unwanted e-mail by more than 70 percent, freeing us up to focus on more important client issues,” explained Steve Derbyshire, operations director, NEC Philips.