The Future of Exchange - Revisited
Back in December of 2013 - I posted an article on the future of Microsoft Exchange. In the article I asked two questions...
1. Will there be an Exchange 2016 and 2019 ?
2. If so will you implement it in a traditional on-premise configuration ?
Back then I said yes and maybe.
For question 1 I was correct, this week MS announced the "first look" at Microsoft Exchange 2016 at the Ignite Conference in May as well as the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) that many top partners and customers utilize to get early builds and prepare for deployment by release.
In the official Exchange Team Blog they called out 4 highlights...
I don't expect major core architectural changes to the Exchange Server role model that has been around for some time.
Now on to question 2....
Will you implement Exchange 2016 in a traditional on-premise configuration ?
In 2013 I said maybe - and I think that answer is still correct....
For many the answer will be no and in fact they didn't implement Exchange 2013 either because they migrated to Office365.
I'm in the IT business and I'm amazed at how many companies I visit that are still running Exchange 2010 and even 2007 & 2003... The main reason is the cost to upgrade and migrate.
As I stated back in my December 2013 post - Exchange typically drives AD upgrades and migrations. And even though there are both MS native and plenty of 3rd party tools to assist with migration - many companies are not prepared to do that work. And the project costs from services firms to perform that migration is often high - so they stay where they are.
Plus MS has been pushing Office365 for several years now. And for many IT executives it makes sense - $X per user for a particular Tier of service and no need to buy hardware, software, backup, etc, etc.. No wonder Office365 is one of if not the fastest growing business lines at MS.
So I am not saying the on-premise implementations are a bad thing, they aren't. And in fact in many industries compliance requirements and other factors still drive an on-prem installation.
Additionally the hardware capabilities have gotten so good anymore that you can often support thousands of users on a handful of servers in one or two locations and be done with it. A modern 2U server can support upwards of 100TB of local storage - so even providing users with an 8GB mailbox - you could support upwards of 10K+ users on a single server. That was simply unheard of just a few years ago.
I've have been involved in literally hundreds of Exchange upgrades/migrations over the years. And I often remember the 100+ servers in 80 countries implementations that were common with Exchange 2003. But that's what still scares IT folks. If they still are supporting one of those old architectures either A) they're kind of afraid to mess with it, B) afraid it will break during migration or C) don't feel comfortable with high levels of user mailbox consolidation.
The reality is that for many companies - you can set up two sites in the US - one east, one west and have the world come to your Exchange environment. Believe me - I've done those consolidations and they work great and you'll end up with a more solid environment at the end of it.
With all that said, I suspect that while Exchange 2016 will be a good solid product I expect fewer and fewer folks with actually ever implement it as the trend is to continue to move to Office365.
Now as for Exchange 2019 ? Your guess is as good as mine..
1. Will there be an Exchange 2016 and 2019 ?
2. If so will you implement it in a traditional on-premise configuration ?
Back then I said yes and maybe.
For question 1 I was correct, this week MS announced the "first look" at Microsoft Exchange 2016 at the Ignite Conference in May as well as the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) that many top partners and customers utilize to get early builds and prepare for deployment by release.
In the official Exchange Team Blog they called out 4 highlights...
- A new approach to document collaboration that makes it easy to send links and collaborate without versioning issues of attachments
- Faster and more intelligent search, to help users quickly find what they need in their mailboxes and calendars
- Significant improvements to eDiscovery search performance and reliability
- Better extensibility, including new REST-based APIs for Mail, Calendar, and Contacts that simplify web and mobile development
I don't expect major core architectural changes to the Exchange Server role model that has been around for some time.
Now on to question 2....
Will you implement Exchange 2016 in a traditional on-premise configuration ?
In 2013 I said maybe - and I think that answer is still correct....
For many the answer will be no and in fact they didn't implement Exchange 2013 either because they migrated to Office365.
I'm in the IT business and I'm amazed at how many companies I visit that are still running Exchange 2010 and even 2007 & 2003... The main reason is the cost to upgrade and migrate.
As I stated back in my December 2013 post - Exchange typically drives AD upgrades and migrations. And even though there are both MS native and plenty of 3rd party tools to assist with migration - many companies are not prepared to do that work. And the project costs from services firms to perform that migration is often high - so they stay where they are.
Plus MS has been pushing Office365 for several years now. And for many IT executives it makes sense - $X per user for a particular Tier of service and no need to buy hardware, software, backup, etc, etc.. No wonder Office365 is one of if not the fastest growing business lines at MS.
So I am not saying the on-premise implementations are a bad thing, they aren't. And in fact in many industries compliance requirements and other factors still drive an on-prem installation.
Additionally the hardware capabilities have gotten so good anymore that you can often support thousands of users on a handful of servers in one or two locations and be done with it. A modern 2U server can support upwards of 100TB of local storage - so even providing users with an 8GB mailbox - you could support upwards of 10K+ users on a single server. That was simply unheard of just a few years ago.
I've have been involved in literally hundreds of Exchange upgrades/migrations over the years. And I often remember the 100+ servers in 80 countries implementations that were common with Exchange 2003. But that's what still scares IT folks. If they still are supporting one of those old architectures either A) they're kind of afraid to mess with it, B) afraid it will break during migration or C) don't feel comfortable with high levels of user mailbox consolidation.
The reality is that for many companies - you can set up two sites in the US - one east, one west and have the world come to your Exchange environment. Believe me - I've done those consolidations and they work great and you'll end up with a more solid environment at the end of it.
With all that said, I suspect that while Exchange 2016 will be a good solid product I expect fewer and fewer folks with actually ever implement it as the trend is to continue to move to Office365.
Now as for Exchange 2019 ? Your guess is as good as mine..
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