Exchange 2003 is here and sporting an entirely different Administrator Console. Complete integration with Active Directory (AD) simplifies group and user management, because it is now centrally managed in the Active Directory Users and Computers utility. OWA (Outlook Web Access e-mail for remote users) is tightly integrated into Exchange 2003 and has most of the key Outlook features its predecessors lacked. In fact, the biggest problem with previous OWA versions was the dearth of rudimentary Outlook features. For example, OWA users (using Exchange 2000 and 5.5) are stumped when they do not have spell check, access to Contacts or support for server-based rules, etc. (To get the maximum features from OWA, users will need Internet Explorer 6, sp. 1.)

Once you upgrade to Exchange 2003, laptop road warriors will be relieved when the new OWA has:

• Support for server-based rules in OWA (Outlook rules will work when OWA users access their e-mail)
  
• A nicer user interface similar to Outlook 2003 with Preview Pane
  
• Full access to personal contacts from outside the office
  
• Spell check
  
• Customized signatures
  
• Support for anti-spam and encryption
  
• Third-party anti-virus support

One of the new features provided by Exchange 2003 is the ability to allow your external users to run Outlook from home and remote locations without opening additional ports on your firewall.  This is achieved by allowing RPC (Remote Procedure Call) protocol to run on top of the regular HTTP protocol.  Given the recent virus and worm attacks prevalent on the Internet, we recommend this feature NOT be enabled. In cases where remote users must run the regular version of Outlook, we strongly recommend that you install a VPN rather than access their mailboxes using OWA.

Better E-Mail Control
IT administrators will like the distribution list security enhancements giving the power to:

• Prevent spammers from accessing custom distribution lists such as “All_Attorneys@lawfirm.com."
  
• Restrict distribution lists to authenticated users.
  
• Control who can send e-mail.

Exchange 2003 supports the Volume Shadow Copy service implemented in Windows Server 2003.  The copy service functionality gives you the ability to instantaneously back up and restore your Exchange data in case of hardware failures on your Exchange Server.

Planning the Upgrade
Depending upon your own unique scenario, each upgrade presents its own migration challenges.  Be sure to carefully map out your upgrade, keeping in mind that Windows 2000 will run Exchange 2003, but Windows 2003 will not run Exchange 2000.

The migration from Exchange 5.5 to 2003 does not have to be two-stepped. Exchange 2003 has a deployment option complete with migration checklists and confirmations. Once you have run a slew of AD prep utilities for Active Directory you can migrate your newly converted data.

Once Exchange 2003 is in place, systems administrators will benefit from the AD offerings.  Outlook users will not notice any change until they upgrade to Outlook 2003 (a/k/a Outlook 11).  The crux of the upgrade will be felt by the OWA users who will welcome having the Outlook features that were missing in previous versions of OWA.

About our author …

Vijay Kaushik is President of inetsupport inc. (www.inetsupport.com), a northern California-based integration and consulting firm specializing for over six years in technology for law firms and developers of inetportal, a .NET portal (www.inetportal.com) bringing existing applications and workflows together through one Web interface. Vijay can be reached at vkaushik@inetsupport.com.