In most organizations, email is the lifeblood that allows day-to-day business to take place. Increasingly, changes in the way email is used within organizations are having a profound impact on corporate infrastructures.
Today, users send and receive more email and thus need larger email boxes. This is placing new demands on the network that carries the messages and on storage systems, as the Exchange database grows to accommodate these messages and associated files.
Another factor impacting infrastructure is the need for 24/7 access to email. Fueled by the explosive use of mobile phones, tablets and smartphones, employees want and expect access to their email at all times. This places new demands on server availability, requiring more robust solutions that reduce planned downtime and eliminate unexpected outages.
Compounding matters, most organizations have not upgraded their Exchange environment in years and will need to consider an upgrade soon. Standard support from Microsoft for Exchange 2003 ended long ago, and Exchange 2010 supports virtualization and consolidation, the cornerstone to many organizations’ cost saving efforts.