Ok, Explain this, if you can.

A while ago, idly hitting the down arrow, what should scurry up to the back edge of my keyboard, but a mouse. Put its front paws on the top edge, looked straight at me, wiggled its nose as if to say, "Got anything for me?", then scurried back under the desk.

At this moment -- this very moment -- I have a trap set baited with Cheddar.

Keep expecting it to go off and jump upside-down any moment.

What was it that you were saying?

depending on the general setup and systems attached to the server. MS claims it has better integration with Windows desktops, and like NexS says support, knowledge base...
Might also depend on the size of your operation as well. Sometimes MS offers discounts on Exchange, along with Windows, Office etc. when purchased as a package.

You have to put a Lighter under it to melt it in. Otherwise the Mice get to steal it from the trap without triggering it.

Maybe your mice are not that cleaver but the ones here used to be till I Edumicated them differently. :D

Col

The Business sign a M$ Only Agreement to get cheaper Licensing.

Or maybe that the Small Business Server used to come with Exchange free or at least as part of the Package so they thought they they where saving money by using it.

I'm not really sure why M$ is the Dominate OS Builder either other than the blandly obvious that they Suckered IBM into supplying all of their PC's with M$ Software so people got the idea that to use a Personal Computer it had to be loaded with Microsoft Product.

Personally I don't even understand why there are so many M$ Servers out there, they are not the best available, certainly not the cheapest and I can see no real reason for them to be in use.

But maybe I'm missing something. ;)

Col

having a domain name and getting mail with your companies domain name as the address was the big thing. Up until 5 years ago, still was, but now with hosted services where you can still have your down domain name and still get mail addressed with it, being so cheap these days, along with the spam headache and costs to combat that, having your own mail server is just to costly.

Now everyone is looking to dump their infrastructure as to costly to maintain. Especially with hardware and software lifecycles dropping to 2 or 3 years. No one can spend that kind of money all the time simply on IT.

When we first implemented Exchange it was because our Marketing department said we needed it and without it the building would collapse around us and the business would fail and the owner agreed.

But a few things come to mind. Firstly, with such a large install base supportability becomes a non-issue. If your Exchange admin falls in front of a bus just throw a stone towards a group of people. You are bound to hit another person with Exchange experience.

Secondly, the (native) integration with mobile devices including contacts and calendars as well as policy enforcement can make life simpler.

Also, as for the "baby-sitting" issue, I just don't get it. I regularly hear people discuss how unstable Exchange is or how much upkeep it requires. Maybe I am just really lucky, but with normal update and maintenance routines (similar to what any server would require) I have never really had to think about my Exchange implementation. Every failure I have seen was a direct result of something else such as hardware incompatibility or software conflicts. But that may just be my experience.

My smart phone attaches to my IMAP server (Dovecot) just fine. That's not really a reason either.

I use postfix + dovecot + a backend (usually).

However, this is just a mail server. It's not a complete groupware solution with calendaring, etc.

I'd say the real motivations for using Exchange are:

a. It integrates with active directory.

b. It's what the companies that use it are familiar with and it's FAR less disruptive just to update.

Most people don't recognize how commoditized the groupware/communication market is, much to Microsoft's glee.

Heck, my last employer used, and still uses, Groupwise. They still use Netware. Why? It's a lot of work with a lot of disruptions to change and neither management nor employees will understand why changing is the right thing to do. They just see it as I.T. playing/justifying their existence/doing unnecessary things that disrupt the organization.

My guess is this why Exchange, like many Microsoft products, is used.

dealing with a "mob of mice" that are unruly and won't line up single file straight line!
The cleanup might be worse???
I've used a BB gun, even recently on a "furry tailed rat" as my wife calls them, that had managed to climb inside our chimney.
"One shot, one kill...clean up the mess"

ps...I should add that shot was performed while laying on my back, looking up through the chimney, with my left hand ( I'm a righty ).

(edited to add ps)

It integrates seamlessly with many 3rd party apps as well as with other Microsoft apps.

We use Exchange 2003 and we're going to migrate to 2010. Our contact database, document management system and every other application we have works with Exchange and Outlook.

I remember the days in IT when integration between applications was very hard to achieve or could not be done, but Microsoft has eliminated that because it was a marketing dynamo.

Third-party application support is very important if you have a sizable network. Yes, you have to pay, but if all of your applications play well together its worth every penny.

AV