August 07, 2006

Top 10 new features of Exchange 2007

Microsoft didn't hold back this time, loading Exchange 2007 with dozens of new bells, whistles, and commonsense improvements. Here are the authors' 10 favorites

1. Server roles: A new modular system that configures Exchange as one (or more) of five basic server roles. Choosing a role means enabling only those features necessary to that role, thereby decreasing the surface area for attacks through other features.

2. WebReady Document Viewing: A new option in OWA allows Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF) to be accessed as e-mail attachments or through public folders to be displayed as HTML, even if Office isn’t installed on the client PC.

3. Exchange Management Shell: The PowerShell scripting language, specifically optimized for Exchange, offers potent new tools for the day-to-day e-mail administrator.

4. Exchange ActiveSync: Improved direct push e-mail ensures ActiveSync clients receive messages on server connect. Other mobile-friendly features include inline message fetch — the ability to download long attachments without reloading the entire message — and information rights management, which allows users with proper authority to view protected messages without being connected to a server.

5. Exchange Forefront and Exchange Hosted Services: Forefront is a rebranding of the Antigen anti-virus/anti-spam products acquired from Sybari, which together provide a quality local security gateway. The Exchange Hosted Services version, available by subscription, delivers additional security, archiving, and continuity.

6. Outlook Web Access: The latest OWA client is a near-perfect clone of the Outlook 2003 desktop interface. Features and views are nearly the same, and performance is excellent. Incredibly, thin-client deployment becomes a real option.

7. Outlook auto-discover: Exchange 2007 combined with Outlook 2007 means administrators will no longer need to walk to client desktops to configure Outlook access to a specific account location. Users simply enter their user names and passwords, and Outlook automatically finds local Exchange servers, locates the proper e-mail account, and sets up access.

8. Smart scheduling: The addition of Scheduling Assistant and Calendar Attendant mean that Exchange tracks not only the schedules of all meeting invitees but also the availability of meeting rooms and can manage all of this on the server, so meetings can be fully scheduled without everyone’s Outlook client being connected.

9. Improved search: A rewritten search algorithm noticeably boosts the speed at which Outlook can find specific messages in large message stores. Administrators can access the same fast indexing in multiple-mailbox searches.

10. Bundled encryption: Exchange can now automatically encrypt all e-mail messages sent within the local organization. It also automatically supports TSL (Transcript Security Layer) encryption, including built-in certificates, as long as both hosts support TLS.

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