White Papers and Articles
White Papers and Articles Index
Exchange Hosting
SharePoint
Hosting
Ecommerce Hosting
Dedicated and Managed Hosting
Erate
General
What's New in Exchange 2007?
Microsoft seems to be making additions to all of their applications, and Exchange is no exception. So, what's new and improved for Exchange 2007? Here are a few of the additions:
-
Management Console - Exchange 2007 features a new console from which every component in the Exchange 2007 setup can be managed. This console is not an optional feature, but one that is required for installation and management of Exchange 2007.
-
Unified Messaging - This new Exchange 2007 feature allows user to receive all voice mail, email and fax messages into the Exchange mailbox. Messages with fax or voice attachments can be opened from any client, including Outlook, Outlook Web Access, and compatible mobile devices. Users are also able to access their mailboxes using a range of devices from mobile devices to telephones (cellular, analog and digital).
- New Anti-spam and anti-virus features, including:
-
Recipient filtering - Exchange 2007 has a new recipient filter that looks up addresses on inbound messages, allowing you to block messages to non-existent users or to distribution lists.
-
Connection filtering - Exchange 2007 allows you to configure filters to allow or block certain lists and IP addresses.
-
Content filtering - The content filter in Exchange 2007 uses content filters along with data from several sources, including connection filtering, recipient filtering, and sender filtering. This data is combined to create "smart filtering," where content is evaluated and assigned a spam confidence level (SCL) rating. Automatic actions like delivery to a junk mail folder, declining the message or deletion can be set up to act on various SCL ratings.
-
Forefront security- Forefront Security provides the anti-virus protection for Exchange 2007. When Forefront detects a potential virus in an email, it automatically sends a message to the recipient's inbox. Scanned messages are automatically stamped with the result of the scan and the version of the anti-virus program that did the scanning. This stamp stays with the message, allowing it to be sent repeatedly through the organization without the need for additional virus scans.
-
Spam filters update automatically every two weeks, while Forefront updates every 24 hours.
-
-
RMS - Exchange 2007 takes advantage of Microsoft's Rights Management Services (RMS). This allows usage policies to be established for documents, and the usage policies stay with the document everywhere it goes. Rules can be set up to prevent messages from ever going to an external server, thereby containing it to the company server. This also allows authors to prevent documents from being copied or forwarded beyond the original recipient. This keeps sensitive information from being accidentally, or intentionally, misused.
-
Outlook Web Access - With Exchange 2007 comes Outlook Web Access 2007, complete with flags, views, and support for categories. There is also a new feature called Scheduling Assistant. Basically, Scheduling Assistant is an auto-booking feature. Users can create a meeting with a list of attendees and Scheduling Assistant will suggest the best appointment time for all participants. It then suggests the next best time for all but one participant, and so on, allowing for easy scheduling of meetings for large groups with hectic schedules.
Added Exchange 2007 features for mobile users:
-
In the past, users of Windows mobile devices have been able to manage their email using their mobile device. With Exchange 2007, receiving html emails is improved using on-device rendering. In addition, there is now an on-demand download feature. With on-demand downloads, users will be able to download the first few kilobytes of a message with an option to download the rest of the message. As the message is read, the content is streamed from the server, in effect creating "streaming email."
-
Exchange 2007 also allows mobile users to search messages on the server, even if the message is not on the mobile device. A search for specific content will show all messages with that content, and users can select from the results list.
-
Exchange 2007 has also improved the security for mobile users. With Exchange 2003, mobile users could use the remote wipe function to erase the contents of the main memory of PocketPC's or SmartPhones. The new version allows users to completely erase both the main memory and any inserted storage card. This is currently available on a self-service basis, allowing users to login to the network from any computer and perform a remote wipe.
-
An additional Exchange 2007 security improvement for mobile users is the added ability to create mobile use policies for individual users or groups of users. In previous versions, mobile use policies applied to all users. The change in mobile use policy creation even applies to PIN length and requirements and login attempts.
Ideally, Microsoft wants Exchange 2007 to appeal to both IT administrators and end-users. Because of this, there are some major additions and enhancements being done to improve deployment, usability and function of Exchange 2007 in every aspect. This is only a partial list of some of the exciting changes coming to Exchange.