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General Information
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March 16, 2007
• Vol.29 Issue 11
Page(s) 1 in print issue
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System Growing Pains
Upgrades To Vista & Exchange 2007 Present Challenges
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The much-hyped recent releases of Microsoft’s Vista operating system and Exchange 2007 have IT managers taking a long hard look at upgrading their organization’s infrastructure. While there are numerous advantages to the new products, such as enhanced security features, optimized mobility functions, and integrated searching, there is an equally long list of challenges, including hardware upgrades and compatibility issues.
Keith McCall, founder and CTO of Azaleos, a Redmond, Wash.,-based company that builds appliances with Microsoft software preloaded, preconfigured, optimized, and augmented in a company’s data center and then provides professional services for management and monitoring, is the former director and Product Unit manager in the Exchange Group at Microsoft. The Product Unit helps large enterprises during upgrades and migrations. What became evident to McCall was the world of IT wasn’t getting easier; in fact, the complexities surrounding new email and operating systems Microsoft was developing meant that upon their release there was going to be a massive discontinuity when IT staffs would have to look at their existing skill set and figure out how to retool for Vista and Exchange 2007.
 Working Together
For the most part, McCall believes that Vista and Exchange 2007 work well together despite the fact that management tools provided with Exchange 2007 do not work with Vista. Administrators are finding this frustrating as they routinely manage servers from their own desktops, which often run the most recent OS on the market.
“The challenge is not just moving to Vista and Exchange 2007 but with all of the applications that surround them,” says McCall.
This has been the case with Vista. Exchange 2003 users found they could not use Outlook Web access via Internet Explorer 7 in a Vista environment. Microsoft has already released a remedy for this issue.
Another compatibility faux pas was the lack of an update for SQL Server to work with Vista when the OS was first released to enterprise customers who routinely rely on SQL-based programs. Since Vista’s release, there have been two patches released to rectify all the compatibility issues.
Another compatibility gripe with Vista pertains to third-party security vendors. Security industry heavyweights, such as Symantec (www.symantec.com), have had to issue new releases of their software specific to Vista. When Microsoft closed access to Vista’s kernel, essentially shutting out other security companies’ products, there was an outcry demanding that Microsoft give established security vendors access to Vista’s kernel.
64-bit Headaches
There’s no doubt that users making the move to Exchange 2007 will need to upgrade to a 64-bit architecture. While the x64 architecture will optimize applications requiring massive amounts of memory not supported by a 32-bit architecture, such as video encoding, scientific research, and massive database queries, users are faced with the issue of Microsoft-approved x64 drivers.
Due to enhanced security, x64 Vista requires signed drivers. “Signed drivers,” identified by digital certificates, have undergone Microsoft’s quality-assurance process and received certification as stable for installation on x64 Windows OS. Unsigned drivers that operate at the kernel level, such as those for RAID controllers, video, storage, and USB devices, will not be able to be installed on the machine, even by the administrator. However, those not running in kernel mode can be installed by users with administrative rights.
Many of the drivers for WinXP x64 were not signed. Users could still choose to install them after clicking through a warning dialog window. With Vista, this won’t be the case. Users would be wise to locate signed drivers for all hardware prior to installing x64 Vista.
Another compatibility issue revolves around virtualization. Despite Microsoft’s recent upgrade to its virtualization toolkit, it still doesn’t support x64, meaning Exchange 2007 won’t run in a virtualized Windows Server environment.
Even without the official release of Longhorn, Microsoft’s next generation of Server OS, analysts have found compatibility bugs that will require Active Directory trees with Exchange 2007 servers be kept separate from Longhorn’s AD tree unless a fix is issued prior to the commercially available version.
New Hardware
“Customers who are looking to move to Exchange 2007 typically will have to repurchase server hardware,” says McCall, who also predicts those who upgrade to Vista will be buying new desktops, as well.
Thom Holwerda, managing editor of OSNews, a clearinghouse news site about operating systems, thinks that 95% of users will get Vista through OEM instead of purchasing the upgrade.
Similarly, IT departments replacing x32 servers with x64 architecture for Exchange 2007 will be more likely to wait until the release of Microsoft’s next-generation server software, Server 2007 or 2008, depending on when it is officially released to complete their upgrade to Exchange 2007.
John Katsaros, co-founder of Internet Research Group based in Los Altos, Calif., estimates that the Exchange 2007 migration costs will reach $50 billion worldwide. This upgrade represents more than just a simple software upgrade; it is a complete retooling of the messaging infrastructure incorporating advances in mobile and telephony as well as traditional messaging.
“I think that people are not going to look at the software upgrades that they might have done in the past with Windows, but they are going to essentially be looking at rip-and-replace,” says McCall, who, like Holwerda, predicts those who upgrade to Vista will do so by purchasing new hardware. McCall says, “If you balance it off with the productivity boost and gains of new hardware and solutions, it just might be warranted.” 
by Sandra Kay Miller
System Growing Pains
• Do it yourself.
• Use a hosted solution or contractor.
• Purchase a managed appliance.
• Look at alternatives. |
Choices For Upgrading
IT managers have a number of choices for how they choose to roll out upgrades for Microsoft Vista and Exchange 2007. Regardless of the choice you make, be certain to perform a complete inventory of your existing environment, create a detailed plan, and stage the deployment starting with a pilot program. |
Sponsored Links
Azaleos OneServer
Azaleos OneServer for Exchange 2007 is an award-winning managed email appliance featuring best-in-class OneStop Managed Services for Microsoft Exchange
www.Processor.com/OneServer
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