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Exchange 2007 facing integration issues with other Microsoft software

By John Fontana , Network World , 01/11/2007

As Microsoft updates the individual key components of its enterprise software, integrating those pieces is proving challenging.

The issues center on Exchange 2007 and its relationship to Vista, released late last year along with Exchange to corporate users, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and the forthcoming Longhorn Server, slated to ship by the end of the year. In a nutshell, Exchange 2007 can’t run on Microsoft’s most current virtualization software, Exchange’s management tools won’t run on the just released Vista desktop operating system and the 64-bit messaging server is not compatible with Microsoft’s forthcoming 64-bit server operating system called Longhorn.

Software alignment
Microsoft has a slate of new software that it has recently released and some that is coming out this year, but not all of it is working together like users would expect.
Issue Details Solution

Exchange 2007, a 64-bit application, can’t run on Microsoft virtualization software

Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005 R2 does not support 64-bit guest systems, though competitors, such as VMWare, do.

Windows Server Virtualization expected to ship in 2008 will support 64-bit guest systems.

Exchange 2007 doesn’t support Longhorn Server or Longhorn directory servers

Active Directory sites with Longhorn directory servers have to be isolated from AD sites that include Exchange 2007 servers.

Support for Longhorn coming in Exchange 2007 SP1, but no ship date has been announced.

Exchange 2007 management tools don’t run on Vista desktops

Management needs to be done remotely, which is already a popular method among administrators.

Exchange SP1 expected to fix the issue.

Click to see: Software alignment

Microsoft officials say it all comes down to timing issues in the development processes of the individual software and that solutions are in the works. Critics say it is another indication that Microsoft’s product teams often are marching to different drummers.

For corporate users, it means deft deployment planning to make sure everything they need works together even though they are getting it from a single vendor.

In any case, users are already reacting, especially in regards to virtualization, which has become a hot bed of networking activity, as well as, a major area of competition for Microsoft with VMWare and open source Xen on Linux platforms.

Ironically, users can run Exchange 2007 on the VMWare platform, which does support 64-bit guest systems, and some users are making the switch.

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Exchange 2007 facing integration issues with other Microsoft softwareBy Anonymous on January 16, 2007, 5:03 pmDuring development of the Microsoft Exchange 2007 version of our managed e-mail appliance, the Azaleos engineering team evaluated virtualizing Exchange roles as...

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