What can an exchange server do for me?
Microsoft Exchange is a communications server. It provides centralised email, calendaring, contacts and task management for your business.
These days email is just as, or sometimes more important than the documents we create.
The advantages of Microsoft Exchange include the ability to share information between users, access your data from remote sites and even mobile phones.
An exchange server extends the functionality of Microsoft Outlook to provide many more features.
For example:
- The office manager could have access to everyone’s diary and be able to see when people are available to schedule appointments.
- The “boss” can assign tasks to staff and be updated via email on their progress
- Staff can share their inbox with others users to enable someone else to monitor their email while they are away
- Staff can work effectively from outside the office and access their important email and contact data from anywhere
- Data is stored and backed up in a central location, so when your hard drive crashes, you won't lose emails, contacts, calendars etc.
Technically exchange server is a robust and industry proven system. It allows for your data to be centralised onto the server which then allows for this important data to be backed up.
If you lost your laptop or had a hard drive failure your data would be safely stored on the server.
Traditionally when using an exchange server mail is set to deliver to your server directly. This involves your server to be correctly setup to accept email for your domain.
The main thing that needs to be setup correctly is DNS. Think of DNS as the old 013 telephone number we use to ring to find someone’s phone number. You ask for a name and your get given a number to ring. The internet works in the same way. When you send an email, or try to connect to a website, the DNS server takes the domain name that you have entered, (E.g. info@domain-name.com.au) and connects you to the correct IP address, which will look something like: 202.10.786.456. If the DNS server is not set up correctly, you will have problems.
A good solution for a small business looking to gain an technological advantage in their business is to install a Microsoft Small Business Server. “SBS” is designed for businesses up to 75 users. It adds excellent functionality to the server and includes exchange as well as secure user authentication, VPN (virtual private network), faxing from the desktop and remote access to your own office computer, to name a few.
Potential problems with an Exchange Server
To set up an Exchange Server, you will probably need to split the DNS of your domain. In laymans terms, you will need email@yourdomain.com.au to go to your exchange server, while visitors looking for www.yourdomain.com.au will go to your website server. This needs to be done correctly, so make sure your IT staff are in communication with your website hosting provider so that no one gets any surprises.
Alternatives to Microsoft Exchange
Like most software, there are always alternatives. Depending on the size of your organisation, you might consider Microsoft Small Business Server as an alternative, which offers added bonuses like VPN and remote desktop. There are also a number of Open Source options available, but you should consult your IT expert as to which one is suitable for your particular situation.
If you would like more information from an expert, get in touch with Steve at SGS Computer Solutions through his website: http://www.sgscs.com/
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