Microsoft's free PST Capture tool has been updated to work with Exchange Server 2013, but a tool such as Sherpa Software's Mail Attender provides more features for PST management....More

Here's a technology truism: You can have an absolutely phenomenal technology, but without user adoption, it's still a failure. And I'm not just talking about IT departments implementing a technology; I mean actually getting end users to embrace that technology. At the Microsoft Lync Conference last week in San Diego, one of the big messages was how Lync 2013 was intended to be "people-centric," with much of the focus in keynotes and sessions on the new and enhanced user features for unified communications (UC). It seems Microsoft, or at least the Lync team, has end-user adoption in its sites."Ultimately, it's all about the changing human interaction, the way people communicate, and really being able to provide an environment that makes them comfortable," said Giovanni Mezgec, general manager for Lync product marketing. Mezgec knows that the "bits and bytes" are important for IT pros, but it's equally important to remember the user experience. "They don't want to be constricted. They want to have the flexibility of looking at the information that they want. Bringing that experience in an environment that makes them feel like a natural extension of what they do already is so important to really foster adoption."...More

For many companies, 2013 is likely to be a year of system upgrades, or at least investigating the new versions of software as they become available. In a Microsoft-centric world, businesses have big decisions around nearly every major IT component, from OSs with the releases of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, to office productivity with Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013, to administration with System Center 2012. Unless your Microsoft Exchange Server implementation is seriously ailing, moving to Exchange Server 2013 might be a low priority this year. Even if your business does need a messaging system upgrade, either to get off older, no-longer-supported software or to take advantage of new features, installing the new Exchange still might not be in the budget....More

So, what's up with Microsoft Exchange Server 2013? I'm looking around at what the experts are saying, and the problems encountered by those wanting to implement Exchange 2013, and I'm not seeing a ton of love. Of course, keep in mind that Microsoft hasn't released the necessary updates for Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 to allow for coexistence with Exchange 2013, so the only actual implementations should be greenfield deployments or lab environments, which means a fairly limited distribution. Nonetheless, it seems to me that Exchange 2013 is getting a bit of an image problem....More

One of the initial messages around the launch of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 was that it would be more collaboration-friendly, or indeed, more sociable. In fact, one story around the whole of Microsoft's Wave 15 products is their increased interconnectedness -- that, and the whole extra reliance on the cloud, of course. But it's this collaboration story with Exchange 2013 I was interested to find out more about. According to Microsoft's website, Exchange 2013 is designed "to support people and organizations as their work habits evolve from a communication focus to a collaboration focus." They also make the point that we're dealing with a "multigenerational workforce," and recognizing that point to me means also recognizing that every technology or every method of collaboration isn't going to succeed with every worker, or every age group. Exchange 2013, in fact, has a number of new or improved methods for enabling collaboration....More

The air is getting crisp, the leaves are turning: must be time for this year's fall Microsoft Exchange Connections conference. If you weren't able to attend last month's Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) in Orlando, you still have the chance to get great Exchange Server content from the experts in a warm environment, as Connections takes place in Las Vegas, October 29 through November 1. Plus, spending Halloween in Las Vegas? You know that's got to be fun. One of our long-time Exchange authors, Nathan Winters, will be speaking at Connections for the first time this year. After working for a few difference companies over the years, Nathan is now an Exchange technical specialist with Microsoft UK. He most recently wrote Mastering Lync Server 2010 and is currently working on projects for the 2013 product wave. I asked Nathan a few questions about what attendees at Exchange Connections could expect from his sessions, as well as how a graduate of the Royal College of Music came to work with Exchange Server....More

With Exchange Server 2013 Preview available for a few months now and the Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) last week, we're getting a clearer picture all the time of what the New Exchange has in store. At MEC, the Microsoft message was pretty strong around the security and compliance story for Exchange 2013, which is good news of course. But overall, what impresses me more and more is the general simplification of Exchange -- all while providing improved performance and new or enhanced functionality.Exchange 2013's simplicity appears both in its architecture and management tools. For the architecture, the big news is that the number of server roles has been reduced from five to two. You'll have to deploy only Mailbox servers and Client Access servers; the functions of the Hub Transport and Unified Messaging servers have been rolled into one or the other of the two remaining. As for the Edge Transport, while it won't be present in Exchange Server 2013 at launch, I've heard some rumors that it might be reintroduced in some form perhaps along with service pack 1 (SP1). In the meantime, Exchange 2013 can function with Edge servers from Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2007 if you've deployed them in your environment....More

Migrating to Microsoft Office 365 is about to become a lot easier, at least for a certain segment of migrators. Today, Binary Tree announced that Microsoft will license Binary Tree's migration and coexistence technology to help move users from Lotus Notes/Domino environments to Office 365. Microsoft's intent is to embed the Binary Tree technology into Office 365 to provide a push-button migration solution for Notes users....More

IT pros usually don't enjoy applying updates and fixes to existing software because of the chance that such "fixes" could introduce new problems. (We've all seen it happen.) So when those updates come with welcome new features, it makes the process just a little sweeter, and could even get IT shops to fast-track the implementation. Such is the case with Update Rollup 4 (RU4) for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2 because of the new support for retention policies on Calendar and Tasks. In versions of Exchange 2010 prior to RU4, you can't apply retention tags or policies either to individual calendar or task items or to the main Calendar folder or Tasks folder. So, businesses with particularly stringent retention needs for compliance might be running into trouble relying only on Exchange's built-in features. Of course, third-party vendors that provide e-discovery or compliance solutions will tell you that Exchange 2010's retention and compliance features are limited even in the best of cases. Nonetheless, the calendar and tasks update in RU4 is certainly being met with approval; many Exchange users have clearly been waiting for this feature....More