MM&M UG UK

Hello from California! This is my first post so please be patient...

I'm hearing a lot about IT managers migrating from Exchange 2003 to 2007 this year. I'd like to ask the MM&MUG members:

1.   How quickly (when) do you think companies are migrating to Exchange 2007?

2.   Do you think there will be a segment that stays on Exchange 2003?

Hi Mark, and welcome;

To get things rolling,

I think it is highly likely that Exchange 2003 will be around for a very long time in fairly large quantities. Exchange 2007 brings some excellent functionality but, realistically Exchange 2003 does a very good job for a lot of companies. I think (hope) that Exchange 2007 deployment will pick up now that SP1 is out, MSFT are certainly going to be pushing it hard (given the marketing money we are getting!).

 

So all in all, yes Exchange 2007 deployment will grow but it has also got a slightly bad reputation as to being not quite finished and difficult to manage given the PowerShell/GUI issues and therefore I think Exchange 2003 will be around for a long time to come!

Cheers

Nathan

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Nathan Winters - MVP Exchange Server
MCSE & MCSA 2000 & 2003 + Messaging, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCP, VMWare VCP v2 & v3.

Welcome to the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group: http://www.mmmug.co.uk

Nathan:

Thanks for the invite (and the opinion)! Feedback so far has been IT Admins will wait for W2K8, then migrate to E2K7 in one move.

What do other members think about E2K3 to E2K7 migration?

Can I throw my hat in the ring as we are currently migrating from 2003 to 2007SP1...Across Forest!! Yeah, I know...Living on the edge, but you're impressed I can tell.

I have seen no features in standard usage 2007 over 2003 that would make me want to go through the hassle of migration unless absolutely necessary.

The two can co-exist quite well in the same forest as long as you pay attention to coneectors and routing, but the restrictions in the GUI make administration a specialist thing and although the Shell is "all-powerful" it is complicated and in certain arenas restrictive.

Unless you plan to unify your messaging or want to run cutting-edge, stay with what works.

That's an interesting perspective, but I must say, there are a ton of features in Exchange 2007 which warrent moving.

The Hub Transport Policies, better activesync control, OWA, the new redundancy and HA options etc etc etc.

Honestly I realise that a migration is often a challenge but then when has it not been. The nice thing is you can do this all side by side so don't have the risk of screwing up your production systems.

Cheers

Nathan

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Nathan Winters - MVP Exchange Server
MCSE & MCSA 2000 & 2003 + Messaging, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCP, VMWare VCP v2 & v3.

Welcome to the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group: http://www.mmmug.co.uk

We have 99% completed our migration and all is good so far (touch wood) it's a massive improvements on outr legacy environment (Exch 2000).. Although I would say it has several gotya's!

TNEF issues with downlevel versions and Lotus Notes

Multiple hub servers located in diferent sites, it will chose one HT server and keep that topolgy until you change the source server and restart the toppolgy service.. (Another call with PSS to find it cannot be done the way we want it)

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Paul Lamb