Summary

Microsoft's strategy on mobility has drastically improved with the release of Exchange 2003, because organizations can now provide several different ways for users to access Exchange information rather than a single Outlook client method, as has been the case in the past. However, because users can access Exchange using a variety of different methods and protocols is not a good reason for all the methods to be activated and used.

Exchange ActiveSync, built in to Exchange 2003, provides an organization the ability to eliminate having their desktop computer systems on all the time. By centralizing synchronization to a server-based component, an organization can now eliminate the need for individual systems with cradles attached to an environment where users can connect to Exchange ActiveSync through Ethernet connections, wireless LAN connections, wireless public access network connections, or even over VPN from another network location.

Exchange 2003 also integrates full support for HTML-Web “based access to Exchange content, thus enabling users with mobile phones to access their Exchange information. Although a mobile phone is not the best device for large extensive emails, by connecting the mobile phone to Exchange mobile access, an organization can simplify its support for email access if users want access only to their contacts, calendar, or other basic information.

In many cases, there is no additional hardware needed to begin using the mobility functions of Exchange 2003, and as the organization needs to scale its use of Exchange mobility, it can add another server to the environment.