Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007: Implementation and Administration

Chapter 1. Getting to Know Exchange Server 2007

If you are reading this book, then chances are good that you are getting ready for a migration from an earlier version of Exchange Server to Exchange Server 2007. Let's face it, Exchange 2007 is pretty intimidating at first glance. When I got my first glance at it in December 2005, many of the features — such as the Exchange Management Shell, messaging records management, transport rules, continuous replication, and the requirement for 64-bit Windows — kind of stressed me out.

Now when people ask me about Exchange Server 2007, I tell them, "It's different, but in a good way." There are quite a few changes and differences that we need to get used to. There are certainly some changes that I didn't like initially, but now I'm used to them and understand why they were made.

In this book, I am assuming that you are an Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 administrator and looking for the differences and changes that you need to know about to get you up and running on Exchange 2007. I am going to avoid a lot of the fluff, such as "how to configure DNS," "what a public folder is," or "how SMTP works," and just focus on relevant changes and how you can take some of the new features of Exchange 2007 and apply them quickly to your organization.

In the first chapter, I want to introduce you to the changes that have been introduced by Exchange Server 2007 as well as Service Pack 1 for Exchange 2007. Specifically, I will focus on the changes that will help ...