Ok, well, that was a lot of fun. I hope nobody thinks I’m insane (more so than usual) when I talk about mail systems but truth be told – I could not do what I do without Exchange. I look at two months ago, on Windows Mobile 5 and Exchange 2003 without a SIP PBX and just feel like that was a total stone age of technology I was basing my business on.

What’s a little more exilirating is that I can finally talk about all these features that the team has worked on so hard. It is hard to convey to someone that is not a developer just what a joy it is to have a concept, to take feedback, to design it and finally showcase it and have people “get it” in so many ways. I’d like to thank the almost 200 of you that showed up and I hope you can act on some of what I’ve been able to present. We are in a middle of the highest leap Exchange has ever made, I really believe that.

We’re no longer all about just having a decent groupware suite. We’re no longer about just having a stable messaging system. We’re no longer just about a reliable and secure messaging environment. We’re now all about business, how it communicates, how it shares, how it secures and how it transforms the communication medium – be it written, faxed or voiced in. Find someone to show you Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007 together. As I said, you don’t have to sell Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007, you just have to show it and people will want it.

As for the SBSer questions; I will answer as many of these as I can at the SMBTN summit, I am presenting this type of material there in March:

Can I use R2 expanded CAL rights to license an extra Exchange 2007 server in an SBS environment?
From Eric: No, they cannot because SBS R2 includes Exchange 2003, not 2007.  Exchange 2003 CALs can never be used to access an Exchange 2007 server.  SBS will not include Exchange 2007 until XXXX.  CAL versions must always meet or exceed the version number of the server it is accessing.  2003 is less than 2007.

Should I wait for Cougar/Centro/Tingyang?
Ok, so I made up Tingyang to illustrate the point that you should not wait. If you are apprehensive because you don’t think you’ll be capable of managing Exchange 2007, don’t worry, its very simple. I am of the opinion that with the new hardware demands placed by Exchange it ought to sit on a server by itself, sorry. Not just that but the logs and databases ought to be on different spindles and a spare database (LCR) should sit on a separate drive alltogether. You’re basing the core messaging functionality of your whole network on a single component, it is time you took it more seriously and stuck it on its own box – and this stands even when Cougar/SBS2008 are released, Exchange 2007 is beefy, give it as much ram as you can.

Will there be an easy migration path from SBS 2003 to Exchange 2007?
There already is one but it requires reading and comprehension.

Why are you talking smack about SBS?
Not at all. Listen, the whole point here is that messaging is no longer one of the cool components of the network. It is THE component that virtually everything else lives on. Messaging, CRM, Voicemail, Faxing, mobile devices, etc. The second that component fails is the second every employee at your clients company that has your phone number picks it up and calls you with an urgent, system down, we’re losing millions of dollars get here #@!%!@@ tone. There is nothing wrong with having SBS and a separate Exchange box strictly for the purpose of communication. Look, 10 site customers have no problem dropping $15,000 on a VoIP PBX – but they can’t afford more than a baseline Dell Celeron server and a $599 software package? Come on! As Jeff Middleton always explains “It’s a compromise. If you go down I could get you back up in about a day” – thats fair. Now ask a business owner if they can live with that. If they can, disregard everything I’ve said.

Is search really that good?
Aaaaaaaaaaaamazingly good. My mailbox is the 8,000lb gorilla and I can pull up anything in a matter of seconds.

Windows Mobile 6, availability?
Availability depends on the carrier, some (T-Mobile) have announced free upgrades on some of their devices and we already know that the current devices running WM5 are plenty capable of running WM6. Just a thought.

Is there really a 32bit edition of Exchange 2007?
Absolutely. However, it is for test/lab purposes only and it is not supported in a production environment. Not supported is a Microsoft term for “it works but when it hits the fan we’ll feel really really bad for you but we will not help you”

Can I upgrade to 2007 on a spare server in an SBS environment and then roll back if I don’t like it?
This question nearly knocked me out of my chair. God no, please, do not attempt this. Major infrastructure hops introduce many changes in the Active Directory environment and doing so as a weekend project… I don’t know who asked this question but I doubt that collective intellect of everyone on that webcast would be enough to execute that one properly. If you must use this in production prepare yourself for a proper migration. I cannot in good conscience tell you to do a weekend project or 2007 at all if you’re even considering a rollback.

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