Introduction

Exchange Server 2007 and Outlook 2007, released Nov. 2006, mark the first major upgrade of Microsoft’s e-mail platform in nearly four years. Besides enhancing existing capabilities, Microsoft added new regulatory compliance (information retention and privacy), unified messaging, and high availability features. While many Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007 features will pique the interest of organizations, upgrading to Exchange 2007 is not as simple as upgrading from Exchange 2000 to 2003, and some of the new capabilities impose additional licensing costs-even for customers covered by Software Assurance contracts.

Exchange Server 2007 and Outlook 2007 include significant improvements in five areas that are important to businesses-availability, regulatory compliance, unified messaging, cost of ownership, and mobility. These features have the potential to justify an investment in deploying Exchange 2007 or upgrading from earlier versions.

Availability

Users have come to count on e-mail to be