Exchange Server

Microsoft’s cloud: ready for Germany. Two new data centers now open for Azure IaaS/PaaS, with Office and Dynamics SaaS coming soon. Germany is well known for its strict data-privacy laws. And it’s one of the largest economies in the European Union. So it was a sensible location choice after the UK DCs opened earlier this month…

With all the focus and attention paid to Office 365, you’d be forgiven for assuming that not much happens in the world of on-premises software. Microsoft will support Exchange 2016 until 2025 and has to maintain the software through patches and updates until then. Exchange 2013 isn’t forgotten either. New cumulative updates are available for the two servers. Cue excitement all round.

Migration of legacy archives like Enterprise Vault are often left as the last part of the journey from on-premises servers to Office 365. A wide range of third-party migration tools are available, but many complex twists and turns await the unwary as they cope with journal reports, archive mailboxes, splitting and explosions, and the sheer amount of data to be migrated. It’s an interesting problem to solve.

Microsoft Azure and Office 365 hosted in the UK for the first time. Redmond just opened up three new data centers in England and Wales, arranged in two Azure regions. This brings the number of Regions to 28 globally. Among the launch customers are Aston Martin, a regional health authority, and the Ministry of Defence [sic]. This should give a boost to Microsoft’s data-sovereignty story…

The Office 365 Import Service does a good job of “bringing data home” by ingesting PST files and other data into Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint Online libraries. But sometimes you just want to do your own thing – and you can with the New-MailboxImportRequest cmdlet.

By the time Microsoft Ignite happens in September 2016, the Outlook app for iOS and Android will have an all-Microsoft infrastructure. The Amazon-based cache is being replaced by a new architecture that is shared by Exchange Online, Exchange on-premises and non-Microsoft email servers like Gmail. It’s a big change and it’s happening now.

In today’s Ask the Admin, I’ll explain how to use Retention Policies in Exchange Server, Exchange Online and Office 365. Hoarding information seems to be a hobby for many of us, and if you’ve ever been an Exchange administrator, you’ll be familiar with the problem of users who are determined to store every last email…

In today’s Ask the Admin, Russell Smith explains the difference between an in-place hold and a litigation hold in Exchange.

Exchange 013016 has been out now for awhile, following a two-month technical preview. As with every new product version, there’s always something shiny and new to discuss. The new features and all the greatness it can bring to your messaging environment will be discussed and analyzed like a Monday night football game. However, when you…

Microsoft is pushing forward with SQL Server and has announced that the CTP of Server 2016 3.0 will be arriving soon and it will bring new features.