Windows It Pro Readers' Choice, Exchange Backup

Messaging and Collaboration | Readers’ Choice 2005 MESSAGING AND COLLABORATION

Mail Server. After being unseated as top product in last year’s contest, Microsoft Exchange Server is back in the saddle, with Exchange Server 2003 winning the award for Best Mail Server. The most recent version of Exchange offers improved clustering and backup features, and the impending release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) promises extended functionality for mobile users. The past year’s introduction of several free add-ons—the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) and Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer—have no doubt made Exchange 2003 even more attractive to users and administrators alike. InstantDoc ID 47267

Exchange Migration. As Microsoft winds up support for Exchange Server 5.5 and packs Exchange 2003 with quality features, the rate of Exchange migrations continues to pick up. Readers told us that when it comes time to make the move, Quest Software’s Exchange Migration Wizard, with its unattended process that allows for mixed-mode coexistence during your migration, is the product to use. Exchange Migration Wizard features targeted functionality for easy migration of remote users, automatic updating of Microsoft Outlook client profiles, real-time synchronization of administrative changes, and consolidation of existing servers. The product supports cluster migrations and provides reporting capabilities. InstantDoc ID 47266

Exchange Backup/Disaster Recovery.

Mail Server 1st—Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 http://www.microsoft.com 2nd—Vircom ModusMail http://www.vircom.com 3rd—Rockliffe MailSite E-mail Server Software http://www.rockliffe.com

Exchange Migration 1st—Quest Software Exchange Migration Wizard http://wm.quest.com 2nd—DesktopStandard ProfileMaker Outlook Edition http://www.desktopstandard.com 3rd—NetIQ Exchange Migrator http://www.netiq.com

Exchange Backup/ Disaster Recovery 1st—Neverfail Group Neverfail for Exchange http://www.neverfailgroup.com 2nd—HP OpenView Storage Data Protector http://www.hp.com 3rd—SteelEye Technology LifeKeeper for Exchange http://www.steeleye.com

Mail Archiving 1st—GFI Software GFI MailArchiver for Exchange http://www.gfi.com 2nd (tie)—EMC EmailXtender http://www.legato.com HP StorageWorks Reference Information Storage System http://www.hp.com 3rd—Sherpa Software Archive Attender http://www.sherpasoftware.com

The warning “Better safe than sorry!” seems custom-made for Exchange administrators. If you take this admonition seriously (and you should), you’ll want to keep a good backup and disasterrecovery solution by your side—and you told us that the Neverfail Group’s Neverfail for Exchange is the best choice. The product’s proactive monitoring and alerting capabilities can help you head off trouble before it spreads. Neverfail for Exchange also protects other applications—such as antivirus and fax utilities—that contribute to your messaging environment, for a well-rounded solution. Add to this switchback capabilities, which can keep recovery from being its own disaster, and you’ve got a winner.

InstantDoc ID 47265

Mail Archiving. Have you started waking up in a sweat with the words must meet regulatory compliance echoing in your ears? If so, you’ll probably sleep better with an easy and reliable email archiving solution in place. The winner of this year’s Best Mail Archiving award is GFI Software’s GFI MailArchiver for Exchange. With its method of storing internal and external messages in one Microsoft SQL Server database (saving as much as 80 percent over personal folder store—PST— storage), this solution is a sweet dream. Users can easily access archived mail through a centralized, Web-based search portal. And you can use GFI MailArchiver for Exchange to enforce corporate policies regarding email content. (For more details about this winning product, see Buyer’s Guide, “Exchange Archiving Tools,” July 2005, InstantDoc ID 46619.) InstantDoc ID 47264 40

Windows IT Pro

SEPTEMBER 2005

Connecting the IT Community

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