Introduction to Exchange Server 2013

Abstract

In October 2012, Microsoft released the eighth version of its messaging and collaboration server, Exchange Server 2013. At first glance it didn’t seem like a revolutionary change, but there was more than met the eye. Exchange Server 2013 is the first version from Microsoft that was designed from the ground up, with the “cloud” in mind—in particular, Office 365, of course. This is an area where Microsoft is facing tough competition from others—for example, Google. Google Mail and Google Apps have a slick underlying infrastructure, making it possible for users to add new features quickly and have good performance figures at the same time. This ability was something that hasn’t been Microsoft’s strongest point in the last couple of years, and therefore Microsoft decided to invest heavily in its cloud infrastructure. At the same time, Exchange Server was being redesigned to take advantage of these cloud developments.