Microsoft Exchange Server is an important mail server and calendar server developed by Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Exchange Server

It runs exclusively on Windows Server, while being accessible to users of the Microsoft Outlook software package. It also supports various other Microsoft products including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Exchange Server offers a number of features that make it a premier choice for companies around the world. With its high availability in many locations around the globe, Microsoft Exchange Server can provide global users with access to their email, contacts, calendar, and mail regardless of whether they are at home, in the office, or on the road. Moreover, a company’s IT infrastructure is spared from maintenance worries, and power outages, as well as expensive upgrades. Also, with this cloud technology, companies do not need to worry about connectivity issues when users change locations. This enables companies to expand into new geographical areas.

Microsoft Exchange Server has two modes of operation:

centralized and server-as-a-service (SaaS). With the former, there is only a single email client per server, whereas with the latter, there are multiple email clients per server. In addition to load balancing, Microsoft Exchange Server also offers application load balancing, which is divided between critical applications and less critical processes. This ensures that the application load does not exceed capacity and that the overall system resources are utilized efficiently.

Microsoft Exchange Server offers four different types of data storage options:

file-storage clusters, principal storage clusters, secondary storage clusters, and off-site cluster replicas. File clusters are logical collections of file folders that have been divided into sets. The size of each set will determine the amount of space needed for storing data. The size of the set can range from a few megabytes up to terabytes. File clusters are the ideal choice for small organizations that rely on Exchange backup and information protection. However, this option is the most expensive among the various ones because of the cost of file storage and required maintenance.

Principal storage clusters are made up of a number of servers that are connected via a network or are located on a rack. They provide the necessary space to store and backup email information. The cost of this service pack is usually one of the largest components of the overall server costs. This is because the Microsoft Exchange Server also requires a large amount of maintenance. For this reason, it is advised for medium to large business enterprises that do not require a robust data center and that need a minimal level of support.

On the other hand, Microsoft Exchange Server hosted in the cloud presents the user with various benefits, including a number of features that are not available with on-site servers. This includes the opportunity to reduce IT costs since no hardware is required and the management process is simplified. By using an online service such as Microsoft Exchange Server, administrators can monitor the health of the server from remote locations. For example, they can check the temperature of the computers and servers while working from their homes. Remote access is also provided by many third-party companies offering Microsoft Office 365 services for free or at a reduced fee.

When comparing the costs of the two types of Microsoft Exchange Server, the most obvious factor is the cost of a Microsoft Exchange Server in the on-premise version. On the other hand, users have the option of choosing an on-premised or a hosted service for managing the mailbox content. It is also worth noting that the on-premise version comes with greater flexibility than the hosted service. The software allows users to create, change, and view the attachment information, while on the other hand, the hosted service restricts viewing of attachments to people on the list. An example of such an attachment is the calendar.

  • The second option is a physical server without any software or a third-party IT provider.
  • In this type of setup, users need to install the Exchange server on their own computers or laptops.
  • This means that users would need to subscribe to a Microsoft Exchange Server with a hardware virtualization product such as Citrix.
  • Users may be able to use the previously released clustered functionality of Microsoft Exchange Server 2021 though it is not yet clear how the functionality of the earlier release would fare in a clustered environment.