Companies are facing a dilemma over whether to migrate
their e-mail systems from Microsoft Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003
or wait for the release of Exchange 2007, according to analyst firm
Gartner.
As reported in Computer Weekly last week, Gartner estimates that
a fifth of Exchange users are still running version 5.5, which is
no longer supported by Microsoft.
Although considered a stable release, the 2003 edition is set to
be replaced by Exchange 2007 next year, which begs the question,
why upgrade to Exchange 2003?
At the moment users could justify an upgrade to Exchange 2003,
but Gartner vice-president Matt Cain advised users still on version
5.5 to delay any decision to upgrade for another six months. At
this point, there would be little point in upgrading to Exchange
2003; instead users could focus on preparing for a migration to
Exchange 2007. Gartner expects most users to deploy this release in
2008.
A year of preparation may seem like a long time, but for Dean
White, technical solutions manager at WHSmith News, thorough
preparation was key to his company’s smooth migration off Exchange
5.5 (Computer Weekly, 13 June).
Third-party tools were also crucial, as the standard Microsoft
toolset was unable to provide for real-time access to both the
legacy and new Exchange server. This was essential to avoid
downtime and minimise disruption in a 24x7 business such as WHSmith
News, said White.
Maurene Caplan Grey, principal analyst at Grey Consulting, said,
“Except for small businesses, nearly all Exchange users use
third-party tools to move from Exchange 5.5 to 2003.”
The main reason for using third-party tools is that the mailbox
data structure changed drastically between versions 5.5 and 2000,
which gave birth to a cottage industry of migration toolsets,
Caplan Grey said. These include Bindview (since acquired by
Symantec), Quest, Aelita (acquired by Quest) and NetIQ.
One of the benefits of these tools is that they allow the 5.5
and 2000/2003 mailboxes to coexist during the migration. “Mailbox
data is gradually moved to the 2000/2003 environment. This can
occur while the mailboxes are available to users (ie online),” said
Caplan Grey.
Another migration option from Exchange 5.5 involves implementing
archiving software to move a significant amount of messaging
storage off Exchange, said Lee Benjamin, an analyst at Ferris
Research. He said that archiving eases the migration and upgrade to
the new platform. “Additionally a company like Quest can offer
archiving and tools to migrate from other messaging systems and
directories,” Benjamin said.
Microsoft said it works closely with software companies to
support the needs of companies with bespoke requirements, such as
staged migration, which is not available with the basic Exchange
tools.