Exchange 2010 will be here before we know it. We will share some of the compelling points regarding upgrades and migration paths. First, we would like to say Exchange 2007 still has not been widely deployed yet. There are still MANY organizations (especially the larger ones) using Exchange 2003. It's obviously a much larger deal to migration an organization with 1000+ mailboxes to Exchange 2007. Deployments that large usually have custom software integrated that also makes migrations tricky.

However, on the SMB side, we haven't seen anyone rushing out to upgrade to Exchange 2007. Exchange 2003 works very well, the system requirements are smaller, and it isn't as cumbersome as 2007. Exchange 2007 is a part of SBS 2008, and therefore most organizations who have upgraded their SBS, are running Exchange 2007 as well. The term "upgrade" is basically the same thing as "migration" in terms of Exchange. There is no in-place upgrade, as it requires migrating all your mailboxes to a new server. It is probably better this way as we don't like installing software over the top of existing software, then keeping your fingers crossed hoping it will work. At least with migrations, you can leave your existing system generally untouched during the whole process.

That being said, let's talk about Exchange 2010. Like 2007, Microsoft added several features to improve both performance and ability to manage the environment itself. There are several changes under the hood that promise to eliminate some of the shortcomings of the pervious versions. Disaster recovery options have been improved as well. The only thing we did like was the system requirements. Exchange 2010 requires a 64-bit OS, nothing different than Exchange 2007. Microsoft also requires Windows Server 2008 to host the Exchange software itself. Windows Server 2003 and earlier versions are not an option. On the hardware side, Microsoft suggests have you several servers to split up the roles. This also varies depending on the size of your Exchange environment. If you want to lump everything together like SBS, the "minimum" per servers suggested is 8GB, plus 2-10 MB per mailbox!

Most of the higher-end servers today are shipping out with 16 GB of memory. However, these are servers like Dell's R710 that carry a $4000+ price tag. Combine the hardware costs with the software licensing and it makes this a hard buy for the SMB market. Especially if they are already have a working 2003 or 2007 environment.

As we get closer to the launch date for Exchange 2010 we expect to see some tweaks (that will hopefully decrease the hardware requirements) as well as some incentives from Microsoft to save money or licensing for upgrades. Stay tuned...