Indigo IT Can Help

The newest version of the most popular corporate messaging and collaboration platform provides immediate and significant improvements over previous versions of Exchange, particularly for large enterprise/business-class and hosted service offering deployments. The extremely feature-rich messaging and collaboration capabilities provided to users and businesses via native Microsoft clients (e.g., Outlook 2007) and non-Microsoft browsers and mobile devices is one of the most noticeable improvements. This alone will make any government IT manager's job easier.

Other benefits include:

1. Flexible, easy to configure, high-availability model allowing service providers the ability to promise customers exceptional service levels while simplifying backup and recovery.
2. High-availability of all components—no single point of failure at the application level (i.e., SMTP, client access, mailbox).
3. Improved data access significantly reduces overall storage requirements and cost (Microsoft notes 50% reduction).
4. Flexible site-resiliency capability that simplifies Disaster Recovery planning.
5. Greater data integrity reliability; reduced requirements for management and maintenance.

Users will enjoy significant performance and functionality improvements:

1. More efficient client access with improved Outlook performance.
2. Greater support for premium features in browser clients such as Firefox and Safari.
3. Basic data archiving and records retention and management capabilities provided; no need to purchase and deploy additional software.
4. Greater Unified Messaging capability to include Voicemail Preview.
5. Improved support for mobile devices.
6. More powerful organizational capabilities in Outlook (2007), to include Conversation View.
7. Better resource management support, such as Conference Rooms.

For an organization currently operating on Exchange 2003 or considering moving to a Microsoft messaging platform, Exchange 2010 is great option that improves administrative and management capabilities, enhances user experience, and reduces the Total Cost of Ownership for e-mail capabilities.

...But what do you need to know?
There are key considerations to account for in planning a move to Exchange 2010.  The underlying technical architecture of Exchange Server 2010 differs significantly from previous versions of Exchange. As many well-documented design assumptions no longer apply, assistance from an IT service provider with design experience on the new version may be advisable.  Before budgeting and beginning design, ensure the organization has a comprehensive e-mail data retention, eDiscovery, and records management strategy in place.  Implementation of a new messaging solution is the perfect time to ensure compliance with US Code, agency policy, and the goals of Internal Affairs.  Changes to enterprise e-mail are high-visibility, high-risk changes—organizations rely on e-mail. Availability or performance problems are a high user priority and can place undue burden on the government IT manager.

Successful enterprise messaging migrations, upgrades, and enhancements consist of equal parts technical expertise, project management, and domain knowledge.  Indigo IT is rich in all three, and can help in all phases regardless of size or scope.

Contact Indigo IT at (703) 537-5410 and let us know how we can help!