Chapter 4 - Assessing the Current Messaging Infrastructure

Chapter 4

About This Chapter

It’s hard to imagine a modern company that has not yet deployed an electronic messaging system. In fact, most large corporations have more than a single system in place, ranging from platforms based on mainframes and client/servers through legacy platforms based on shared files. Heterogeneous infrastructures evolve quickly but should be avoided. Proportional to the number of e-mail systems, the complexity of the environment increases and so do the costs of administration and system maintenance. In addition, user satisfaction is jeopardized through delayed message transfer, inconsistent global address lists (GALs), and barriers in information sharing. To cut the costs and simplify the environment, many organizations decide to move to a single enterprise messaging system.

E-mail migration is not a new endeavor. It has been a hot topic since the middle of the 1990s, when PC-based client/server solutions became powerful enough to provide the scalability that large companies require. Unfortunately, however, migration is a complex undertaking that comes with high risks. When attempting to replace a productive system, even small mistakes can lead to major problems, disrupt business processes, and result in frustration. It’s important to carefully study the existing messaging infrastructure to design a future Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server organization that can seamlessly integrate with the legacy systems. This step calls for an optimization of the production environment before and after installing Exchange 2000 Server.

This chapter provides guidelines for documenting and assessing messaging infrastructures prior to an upgrade to Exchange 2000 Server. Lesson 1 explains how to evaluate an existing environment for an integration of Exchange 2000 Server for message transfer. Lesson 2 then discusses options for directory synchronization to ensure consistent GALs across all systems in the network. Lesson 3 addresses the assessment of the user community, which should not be forgotten in any deployment scenario.

Before You Begin

To complete this chapter, you must:

• Have practical experience in administering PC-based messaging systems
• Be familiar with the concepts of directory synchronization
• Be aware of the technical features of Exchange 2000 Server, as explained in Chapter 1, "Introduction to Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server"