So your company has decided to migrate to Exchange 2010? Great! But before you make the leap, it is important to asses the potential risks and pitfalls that accompany the migration from exchange 2003 or 2007.
There are several benefits to adopting Exchange 2010, including a streamlined installation, top-notch online resources, enhanced compliance and information security features. As well as the new servers providing businesses with more efficient hardware in terms of process, cost and energy.
Upgrading from legacy systems presents a number of challenges for organisations. For example, the continued growth of email and associated items can be a significant hurdle, particularly for global organisations. Additionally the choice to migrate may be hampered by current economic conditions in which consolidation, downsizing, overworked staff and budget constraints and take their toll.
When migrating your exchange server, it's normal to experience business disturbances like email downtime. But the more serious consequences of migration, such as data loss and spiraling costs, can be a daunting prospect for any IT manager, not to mention the complexity of managing an array of ancillary services throughout the move.
So whether you're moving from Microsoft Exchange 2007, or the ancient 2003 version, your IT team will encounter a number of compatibility and security issues they will need to address in order to ensure a seamless and efficient migration to Exchange 2010.
When considering exchange migration it is important to make sure that all your businesses needs are fulfilled. Management will want to know that the daily flow of business wont be significantly impacted, legal teams will need assurance that compliance will be maintained, and of course your users will need to be assured that they will have access to their emails throughout the switch over.
So how do you ensure a smooth transition to Exchange 2010? All the while staying within budget? Well if you're a small or medium size company, the obvious solution is right over your head - the cloud! But what about large enterprises like America's Fortune 50? Well what if I told you that the cloud could work for them too?
If you're a sceptic...
Dow Chemical (DOW), a leading provider of plastics, chemicals and agricultural products, is just one Fortune 50 company that has opted towards migrating their email and productivity apps to the cloud. With around 50,00 employees worldwide, the company is in the process of upgrading to office 2007 and is commencing a full migration to windows 7 that should be completed within the year.
Dow began is global pilot testing program for email-migration in November 2010, and aims to move its entire 52,000 person workforce over by the second quarter of this year. Dow claims the transition to the cloud wont be jarring for it's staff because it has already been using what David Day, Dow's Director of Global Information Systems, calls a "private cloud" for over a decade now.
So now armed with this knowledge, you can confidently plan your Exchange 2010 migration knowing that even the big guys are making the leap. If you also choose to migrate your email to a 3rd party cloud service, you'll find the additional benefit of a team of experts that can help you every step of the way making the transition so easy that you'll be left asking yourself why you hadn't moved to the cloud sooner!
Jennifer Flowers is freelance writer and photographer.
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