Exchange and Outlook Blog

It's been a while since I've written anything about my life as a smartphone addict. The reason is simple: It's a little embarrassing to claim the moniker of "smartphone addict" when you're stuck using a mobile device from the Stone Age. Of course, the Stone Age in mobile technology at this point is anything more than a year or 18 months ago. As of today, however, I've abandoned my stalwart original Droid by Motorola and am now using the Droid Razr Maxx.

Two years ago, I wrote about my selection process that landed me on my first smartphone, the Droid. At the time, there were signs that the Android mobile OS was on the rise, but it still felt like a bit of a risk. I certainly have never regretted my choice, even with all the -- quite legitimate -- problems with the Android ecosystem, ranging from malmare in the Android Market to OS version fragmentation across devices that can be a real headache for IT departments.

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Microsoft didn't quite make the predicted end-of-year 2011 release for its PST Capture tool that was originally announced last summer. But the good news is, as of today you can get this long-awaited -- and free -- tool in the Microsoft Download Center.

The aim of this tool is to discover PSTs throughout your network, including on PCs, fileshares, even USB drives, and give you the ability to import them into Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or to Exchange Online. "As we've had a lot of success with our archiving technology and people adopting Exchange 2010," said Ankur Kothari, a senior product manager with Exchange, "one of the things that customers have been asking us for is the ability to stop having these rogue bits of data across their organizations." PST Capture helps fight this problem by collecting PSTs "in a centrally managed place so that they can do things like discover against that data or have appropriate policies in place that will expire content, or keep it, as needed," Kothari said.

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It took a year after the release of Microsoft Lync 2010, but this week Microsoft finally released mobile clients for its real-time communications server. That means you can access your corporate Lync server for IM, presence information, and related goodies, from your smartphone. So far, Microsoft has released clients for Windows Phone and Android, with iPhone, iPad, and Symbian versions expected any time now. The smartphone addicts among us will rejoice. ...Read the rest of entry >>

It's always exciting when a new Motorola Droid smartphone hits the streets, as with today's release of the Droid Razr on Verizon. Of course, it's much the same with Apple's iPhone; they just don't happen as frequently. In comparing some of the official promotional commercials for the Droid Razr and the iPhone 4S, it's clear these companies approach things quite differently. Let's have a look. ...Read the rest of entry >>

At last week's Microsoft Exchange Connections conference in Las Vegas, Exchange General Manager Kevin Allison gave a keynote entitled "Moving Into the Future with Microsoft Exchange." Before moving forward, Allison took time to apologize for and explain the problems the Exchange team had earlier in the year with updates to Exchange 2010. Personally, I think that was a really good move -- something I think doesn't happen enough in our society, let alone from big corporations.

I won't dwell on what Allison covered in his keynote, mostly because Tony Redmond already wrote about it. However, I did have the chance to sit down with Allison afterward and talk a little more in depth about what's going on in the Exchange development process, what we can expect from the product now that the on-premises development is combined with the cloud version of Exchange Online, and also a few hints about what we might see in the next full-release version of Exchange, currently being called Exchange 15.

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I've been spending some time with an old friend of late, a friend we call OWA. When Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 launched about two years ago, improvements to Outlook Web App (OWA) was one of the major themes: conversation view, MailTips, integrated presence and IM, all available with full-featured OWA versions on multiple browser platforms. The question I had at the time was if OWA was now good enough to replace Outlook on the desktop altogether.

For many people, undoubtedly the OWA experience truly offers all you need in an email and calendaring client. But my recent immersion in OWA has highlighted the gaps that still remain between OWA and the complete Outlook desktop version you get with the Microsoft Office suite. To start with, let's look at some of the positives. ...Read the rest of entry >>

It's so rare these days to hear any good news about the BlackBerry ecosystem. As one of my colleagues put it in conversation yesterday, RIM seems to be circling the drain on its way out, potentially leaving space in the mobile market for Microsoft's Windows Phone to assume third place by default. But today brings some good news from RIM for BlackBerry users.

RIM announced the public beta of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. What this means is that if you're using, or planning to move to, Office 365, you'll now be able to continue using your BlackBerry devices with that service as well. RIM will host the service (which I know will give some businesses shivers, considering the recent BlackBerry outage), and it will feature a web-based console to allow administration of BlackBerry devices from anywhere....Read the rest of entry >>

I've been wondering whatever happened to that next service pack for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that was announced way back at TechEd 2011 in May. The lack of information lately almost makes it feel as if this update has been forgotten. Microsoft said at the time that Exchange 2010 SP2 would be available "in the second half of calendar year 2011," which is where we find ourselves now, with time quickly running out.

Microsoft has a history of releasing Exchange Server updates in early November, so I wouldn't be surprised to see SP2 make its debut within the next few weeks. That would also be in keeping with the idea of having Exchange releases and updates adhere to a regular rhythm, a notion espoused by Exchange General Manager Kevin Allison.

So, as a reminder, Exchange 2010 SP2 will include a plethora of bug fixes—naturally. But in keeping with the recent standard of service packs being about fixes and new features, SP2 also includes a few noteworthy additions....Read the rest of entry >>

How important is mobile device management to your business? We've gone beyond the days when organizations could simply standardize on a single device, or even platform, such as BlackBerry, and manage everything the same. It's not even just iPhone or Android smartphones anymore; the iPad has launched the tablet space in earnest. The BYOD world has taken over.

I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. If you can increase employee satisfaction and effectiveness by letting them use the mobile devices they love best, it seems like an easy win—provided your IT department is prepared to manage the variety of devices such a situation brings.

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Microsoft Exchange Server expert and author Michael B. Smith has a technology career spanning almost 30 years. His first job in IT was while he was in college in the early 1980s (picture not available, but I'm imagining some really great hair). After working for a few different companies over the years in IT departments, in 1999 he started working in IT consulting, working largely with building hosted Exchange environments. Michael published his first article in 1984 in Byte magazine, and since that time he's written a couple hundred articles, over 400 blogs, 2 books, and contributed to 4 other books.

If you're attending this fall's Microsoft Exchange Connections, you'll be able to share in some of Michael B. Smith's well-earned messaging wisdom as he'll be presenting several sessions. Michael is also, by all accounts, an accomplished swing dancer, and although I can't say you'll get to see that skill displayed—well, you just never know, do you? You still have a couple of ways to get a discount on conference registration. First, the early bird discount has been extended until September 8; second, use the code UPDATE when you register for an extra $50 savings.

Now let's see what Michael had to say about the current state of Exchange server deployments and what you might expect to see at Exchange Connections....Read the rest of entry >>