If you do a quick check with IP pro community on their favorite Microsoft product, most of the time you may get this answer - Messaging & Collaboration or specifically MS Exchange server; eventually this could be Unified Communications as the Office communications server advances to its next level. Literally, no direct competition for MS Exchange Server.

With the recent release of Unified Communications, the competition is even getting stronger & dominating in the market for Microsoft Messaging & Collaboration. I guess this is the time for other players to cooperate with Microsoft; else they become less dominant in the market. Companies like Alcatel, Nortel, Avaya, Polycom and many more are now partnering with Microsoft on integrating its solutions with Microsoft Unified Communications product.

That’s fine, back to the topic. It has been agreed that Exchange is a big time in corporate environment because of its features & intuitive user interface are most suitable for any average users. But sounds expensive for the users if they wish to have their own Exchange Server & Outlook mailbox. Crazy, isn’t it? Why would one want to go for this expensive way? The fact is, until recently it was almost impossible for a single home user to run an exchange server for his/her own. This is due to various reasons, such as hardware, bandwidth, license, server admin expertise, so on and so forth drastically expensive. My personal Exchange Server is running on Virtual Server environment that is also limiting what I do in Exchange. It’s merely helps me to get into the environment where I can review various exchange related products and write about Exchange which gets published as tutorials for the community to read. Read more here

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