Wednesday 30 January 2008

WM6 & Gmail play nicely

Getting your personal email on your Windows Mobile can be just as useful as business email. That is of course if your corporate security policy allows it.

For ages now I have had my Gmail account setup as IMAP on my Touch Dual, but I wasn't getting mail. So I gave in and used the Gmail app. Well good news, looks like Gmail and Windows Mobile are now playing nicely together.

To get the settings go here, http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=78886.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

A view of the future from Exchange Labs

Back in October Microsoft quietly announced Exchange Labs (see here) This initiative has the aim of helping the build & testing of the next version of Exchange in a high-scale services environment - selected US universities.

For me, there are some interesting developments hidden in here... some highlights;
  • Windows Live ID authentication, that can be used with Messenger, Spaces, and all of the other Windows Live services - single authentication, across many many services (not just email)
  • 5 GB of mailbox quotas - this is a sign of things to come. Given that Exchange 2007 is best upto 1-2GB max.does this mean a new storage engine for Exchange finally? Will this be SQL2008 based?
  • Ability to integrate on-premises Exchange deployment for faculty and staff, with hosted Exchange Labs for students - this is probably due to directory and authentication changes, but this means that companies with global offices or dispersed/mobile workforces can now choose to combine Exchange systems as the require - on-premise and hosted-service

There are also some administration features appearing too, including self-service DL management inside OWA, similar to the Window Mobile features available in OWA today. Some of that detail is here

Monday 21 January 2008

Web Ready document viewing (and some other SP1 improvements)

One of the best improvements for Exchange 2007 is the change to the user experience when using Outlook Web Access. You need SP1 to benefit from all the changes, my favourites include Web Ready Document Viewing for the Office 2007 file formats, but you also get the ability to configure server side rules, access to the Deleted Items recovery, S/MIME support, and, in SP1 the return of Public Folder access.

Web Ready document viewing is simple - "Open as Web Page" renders documents in your browser as HTML without the need to download the document, or have Microsoft Office installed. There is support for Word Excel and PowerPoint in both 2003 & 2007 formats.
Sometimes OWA is a whole lot easier to use than Outlook. With Microsoft adding many new features with every release, maybe the days of Outlook on the desktop are numbered?

Thursday 10 January 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2007

For most businesses today, e-mail is the mission-critical communications tool that allows their people to produce the best results. This greater reliance on e-mail has increased the number of messages sent and received, the variety of work getting done, and even the speed of business itself. Amid this change, employee expectations have also evolved. Today, employees look for rich, efficient access—to e-mail, calendars, attachments, contacts, and more—no matter where they are or what type of device they are using.
For IT professionals, delivering a messaging system that addresses these needs must be balanced against other requirements such as security and cost. Enterprise security requirements have become more complex as the demand and use for e-mail has increased. Today, IT departments must contend with e-mail security threats that are wide ranging: continually evolving spam and viruses, noncompliance risks, the vulnerability of e-mail to interception and tampering, in addition to the potential harmful effects of natural and man-made disasters.
While security is clearly a priority, IT is ever cognizant of the need to manage cost. Time, money, and resource constraints are a fact of life as IT is made accountable to do more with less. As a result, IT professionals look for a messaging system that addresses both enterprise and employee needs while also being cost-effective to deploy and manage.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 has been designed specifically to meet these challenges and address the needs of the different groups who have a stake in the messaging system. The new capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 deliver the advanced protection your company demands, the anywhere access your people want, and the operational efficiency you, in IT, need.

Who are we and why are we creating this site?

Hello and welcome to our Exchange 2007 site. We're a team of Exchange experts with knowledge to share, problems to fix and we're gaining Exchange experiences everyday. Between us, we run platforms for ~40,000 Exchange 2003/2007 mailboxes, we've experience with Exchange that spans many years, goes back to v4.0 and includes JDP/TAP involvement in several major version releases.

We'll include relevant and interesting news & posts from some of our favorite Exchange sites such as the Exchange Team blog (microsoft) and msexchange.org.

Please give us your feedback!!! We're interested in hearing from you whoever you are - sysAdmin or Exchange Admin, end user or power user, Windows-Mobile user or BlackBerry addict , MD, CTO or Operations Manager, customers of Hosted Exchange services and even ....Microsoft!
One of our team is a UK-based Exchange MVP - Talk to us and we'll promise to tell you all we know.

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