I have been working with Exchange since 1997 when Microsoft introduced Exchange
server 5.0. Over the years, a lot has changed in Exchange, or as they say in marketing
terms, “it has been built from the ground up,” and with the move writing Exchange in
managed code (i.e., .NET), that’s completely true.
But there’s this other beast called Exchange Online, part of Office 365. It is not a big
secret that Microsoft wants everybody to move to Office 365, and for a lot of customers,
that is the best solution. All Microsoft developments and new features are in the
cloud, and Exchange server on-premises is in a status quo. There are not a lot of new
developments, and all updates are about stability and security.
But why a book about Exchange server? There still is a demand for Exchange server
on-premises. Sometimes, organizations are running Exchange server for the wrong
reason (“the cloud is too expensive,” for example), but there are organizations that
do not want to be the first, or they cannot move to the cloud for legal reasons. Do not
forget there are still millions of mailboxes on-premises, and this book is targeted for
administrators that are completely moving to the cloud anytime soon and still have
Exchange servers on-premises. This can be a full on-premises environment and I still
have these types of customers, but also in a hybrid environment where Exchange server
on-premises is configured with Exchange Online