MS Exchange Blog

Entourage 2008 for Exchange Web Services Beta Released

Exchange Server 2007 introduces a set of web services (EWS) enabling access to Exchange from varied clients independent of platform. Microsoft has released a public beta of Entourage 2008 for Exchange Web Services - probably the first comprehensive client to use EWS. The private beta has been ongoing for a couple of months almost, but it is being opened to the public.

Entourage 2008 does use some EWS (Out of Office Assistant and Delegation functionality), but Entourage 2008 for EWS replaces WebDAV with web services. Exchange 2007 SP1 with RU4 or higher is the minimum requirement on the server side to participate in the beta.

Information about the beta is available from Microsoft's Mactopia site.

Exchange Web Services Links:

Exchange Web Services Architecture
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa579369.aspx

Exchange Web Services Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb204119.aspx

William Lefkovics

Messaging and Collaboration Server Market Share and Trends

In an IBM press release last week, it was suggested that Lotus Notes/Domino has taken a bite out of Microsoft's market share in the corporate messaging arena. Maybe it was just to draw attention to this week's Lotusphere 2009 conference. Microsoft has replied with a press release done as an interview with their own David Scult, a General Manager in the Information Workers division, entitled Making Sense of the Messaging and Collaboration Market.

Lotus is still big in the enterprise market. As IBM indicates, Lotus Notes/Domino is used in over 50% of the largest 100 companies in the United States. Microsoft notes that Lotus was once in 2/3 of the Fortune 100, so 50% is not as impressive as it sounds. All the while, Yahoo!'s Zimbra Collaboration Suite claims to have sold over 20 millions client licenses over 30,000 companies.

The IBM article claims that Lotus has experienced solid growth for several quarters. That is believable certainly. Lotus Notes 8.x and Domino 8.x represent a great step forward, especially on the Notes side. The Notes client has drastically increased its usability. What is challenging to believe is that the gains that Lotus has experienced is somehow greater than the increases witnessed by Microsoft with Exchange Server.

Identifying software market share is not an exact science. It is a combination of vendor sales numbers, company surveys and some semi-informed analysis. Is there a guarantee that firms are being honest in answering surveys? When a company moves from one application to another, do the licenses no longer in use get deducted magically from the vendor's claimed total? Do the vendors share accurate sales information? Is market share based on number of user/client licenses? Number of companies that have invested in the product? Number of servers? What if we only count companies with more than 500 users?

Overall, the Exchange vs Notes market share debate seems more of a marketing public relations exercise than an accurate assessment of messaging solutions deployed in the market. It reminds me of the classic book "How to Lie With Statistics" by Darrell Huff (it should be part of the high school curriculum). Personally, when faced with a choice of products, I like vendors to focus more on the benefits of their own product and not maintain a primary marketing strategy of denigrating the competition.

Interestingly, the Microsoft Press Pass interview lists Coca-Cola Enterprises as an Exchange Server customer and the IBM press release boasts that the Coca-Cola Company is a Lotus Domino client. I wonder if those are the same?

William Lefkovics

"Exchange's lead over Notes actually 'getting bigger and bigger,' says Gartner"

"While IBM argued today that its Lotus Notes collaboration software was turning the tide against the market leader, Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange, a Gartner Inc. analyst said that's not the case.

 "I don't believe that in either revenue or user seat share, that IBM is closing the gap [with Microsoft]," Tom Austin, a Gartner analyst, told Computerworld today. "The gap is getting bigger and bigger." .. "

Read on...

New XML Update for ExBPA

Ananth Ramanathan has just announced at the You Had Me At EHLO blog that a new XML update is available for the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA).

"The update applies to the tools shipped with Exchange Server 2007 systems with Service Pack 1 applied. It is currently only available for English language servers at this time.

The following tools have received an updated set of rules:

1. Best Practices Analyzer
2. Disaster Recovery and Performance Troubleshooter"

Full info...

Blackberry Storm a-brewing November 21 in the US

Over a month after the joint press release with Verizon and Vodafone, the Blackberry Storm will be available in the United States on November 21 with an after-rebate price of $199.

This is the first Blackberry with full touchscreen developed to compete directly with Apple's popular iPhone.

The touch screen Blackberry goes on sale at Vodaphone stores in the UK on Friday, November 14 (where it will be free with a 2 year plan).

William Lefkovics

MSExchangeBlog (Yes, this one) is over 5 years old!

This blog has been ongoing for well over 5 years now (Chris Meirick started it in June 2003). While it has experienced varied levels of participation and content, we still enjoy a solid readership. So we are again looking to improve and bring back more substance and content to make this a valuable entry in your blogroll.

William Lefkovics

Symantec to buy MessageLabs

Symantec announced it is acquiring e-mail security company MessageLabs today.  MessageLabs claims it services over 19,000 customers across 86 countries through its e-mail security-as-a-service model.  Symantec is growing its SaaS offerings. This is probably $695 million well spent.

William Lefkovics

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Now Available

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is now available here..

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8b492ed2-ea92-412f-a852-3aa1c58d9499&DisplayLang=en

The full list of fixes is here..

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=952580

RFC2821/2822 Updated and Replaced with RFC5321/5322

A pair of the most referenced RFCs have again been updated. The RFCs used for SMTP and e-mail message formatting have been replaced with new RFCs. The AntiSpam Blog at MailChannels.com has good highlight coverage on what has been changed.

RFC 5321 obsoletes 2821 for Simple Message Transfer Protocol.

RFC 5322 obsoletes 2821 for Internet Message Format.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft announces Microsoft Certified Masters Program

Microsoft recently introduced an updated set of certifications for the advanced professional. The Microsoft Certified Masters (MCM) series takes Microsoft certification to another level. It actually bridges the gap between the Professional certifications that most of us are used to hearing about and the elite Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) certification.

The MCM program currently offers certifications in Windows Server 2008 Directory Services, SQL Server 2008, and of course Exchange Server 2007.  This is a three week course currently offered in Redmond, WA only and only in English. It carries a significant price tag as well.

The pre-requisites for the class are as follows:

• Five or more years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: installing, configuring, and troubleshooting
• One or more years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: installing, configuring, and troubleshooting
• A thorough understanding of Microsoft Exchange Server design and architecture
• A thorough understanding of Active Directory, Domain Name System (DNS), and other core network services related to Exchange Server
• Ability to speak, understand, and write fluent English

You also must have successfully completed certification exams for:

• M70-236 Configuring Exchange Server 2007
• M70-237 Designing Messaging Solutions with Exchange Server 2007
• M70-238 Deploying Messaging Solutions with Exchange Server 2007

Finally, you need to be either an MCSE in Windows Server 2003, or you need to have passed M70-640 Windows Server 2008 Directory Services.

The first classes run in October 2008.

William Lefkovics