What is Microsoft Exchange Server? Microsoft’s Groupware explained

For many busi­ness­es, seamless com­mu­ni­ca­tion depends on the internal co­op­er­a­tion of groupware solutions. These make it possible to centrally manage e-mails, ap­point­ments, contact in­for­ma­tion, and tasks. One software that offers such functions is Microsoft Exchange Server. The market leader’s col­lab­o­ra­tive software is available in two different editions, each offering a different set of functions, and requires the purchase of a cor­re­spond­ing license. Companies have the pos­si­bil­i­ty of using the groupware solution via the cloud or may al­ter­na­tive­ly operate it as an on-premises software within their own data centers. Read on for an overview of Microsoft Exchange’s functions, as well as an in­tro­duc­tion to some of the program’s features, and an ori­en­ta­tion on which model is best suited to your needs.

The Microsoft Exchange Server is either used as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model or its licensing rights are purchased and then installed on your own server.

• On-premises: those wishing to integrate Microsoft’s groupware solution into their own IT in­fra­struc­ture require a server license, which allows you to install the software onto your own hardware. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, using Microsoft Exchange also requires client access licenses (CAL). These licenses either give you access to a specific device, which is then made available to different users, or a specific user is instead au­tho­rized to access different devices on the Exchange Server. It’s important to note that such CALs don’t include the user rights for the required client software (Outlook).

• Exchange Online: as a part of the online service, Microsoft 365, Microsoft also offers the groupware as a cloud service. In this case, Exchange Server isn’t operated on your own computer. Instead, it’s hosted inside the Microsoft Cloud. Access to the software’s functions requires a user sub­scrip­tion, known as a User Sub­scrip­tion License (USL). This allows you to use Microsoft Exchange Server as a SaaS and si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly keep things running within your own data center, enabling al­ter­na­tive solutions, such as hybrid hosting.

• Exchange server hosting: the third usage model gives you access to Microsoft Exchange Server via a third-party provider. Generally, this involves working with a web-hosting provider that has acquired a license from Microsoft that au­tho­rizes it to charge for using the desired groupware. This enables end users to book Exchange Server features in the form of on-demand tariff packages.

The model best suited to your needs depends largely on the size of your company. Cloud-based solutions are geared primarily towards mid-sized companies, which normally lack the necessary means for in­stalling and main­tain­ing pro­fes­sion­al IT in­fra­struc­ture. Basic data pro­tec­tion measures as well as com­pli­cat­ed back-up pro­ce­dures are both expensive and time consuming to implement on local IT in­fra­struc­ture. By contrast, it’s up to the operators of large data centers to take care of such measures.

By out­sourc­ing exchange hosting, it’s rel­a­tive­ly easy to adjust the required per­for­mance level to a company’s needs as they change. Should your company be going through a spurt of un­pre­dict­ed growth, then it’s possible to add more inboxes to the server without having to invest in expensive hardware or ad­di­tion­al licenses.

The on-premises usage model, on the other hand, is aimed at large companies whose IT de­part­ments are equipped with the budgets necessary for setting up a secure Exchange Server within their own fa­cil­i­ties. And unlike other usage models, like the Exchange Online or Exchange Server hosting options, pur­chas­ing server licenses through third-party providers offers the freedom of being able to tailor Microsoft Exchange Server’s functions specif­i­cal­ly to your busi­ness­es’ needs. What’s more, this option also gives users complete authority over their data. Companies running Microsoft Exchange on their own servers never let their data out of their hands.

Once you’re certain that you want to rent an Exchange Server, the hosting itself, including hardware main­te­nance and updates, also becomes the provider’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. All you need to do is make sure you have access to the required client software (usually Microsoft Outlook). Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can use the Outlook on the web app in­te­grat­ed in Exchange Server for browser access. Those wishing to set up the Exchange Server them­selves need to be aware that this generally also means having to deal with much more ad­min­is­tra­tive work. The operating systems Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2 are required for in­te­grat­ing Microsoft Exchange 2016 into your own data center. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the network also needs to provide the Microsoft directory service, Active Directory; this is because Exchange needs Active Directory for saving and sharing directory in­for­ma­tion for Windows. For Exchange 2019, however, Windows Server 2019 is required as well as at least .NET Framework 4.7.2.

Popular exchange server al­ter­na­tives featuring a similar range of functions are Open-Xchange, IMB Notes, Zimbra, Zarafa, and Scalix.

In October 2018, Microsoft in­tro­duced the new version of Exchange: in terms of security and per­for­mance, the 2019 version has def­i­nite­ly improved. Exchange now supports Windows Server Core, for example. The min­i­mal­ist server in­stal­la­tion offers attackers fewer op­por­tu­ni­ties to become active. In addition, ad­min­is­tra­tors in the lean en­vi­ron­ment run less risk of in­cor­po­rat­ing errors that hackers could use as a gateway. The other important security in­no­va­tion: From now on, access to Exchange man­age­ment from outside can be blocked directly.

Microsoft has improved per­for­mance by greatly op­ti­miz­ing searches. This goes hand in hand with a much faster failover. In addition, Microsoft Exchange now also supports modern hardware: 256 GB can be used as RAM and 48 processor cores can be used in parallel.

Several new functions have also been in­tro­duced for end users. At the same time, some features that were important for certain companies have dis­ap­peared:

There are two editions of Microsoft Exchange Servers: Standard and En­ter­prise. These are available as both server licenses as well as client access licenses. While the server license deals with scaling groupware solutions, the CAL edition differs in terms of its per­for­mance features:

With CAL, you can either license a certain device or an in­di­vid­ual user. In order to purchase an en­ter­prise CAL, the Standard Cal must first be bought.

While the standard server license is aimed at small busi­ness­es, Microsoft aims to target large or­ga­ni­za­tions with the En­ter­prise license.