Microsoft Exchange Server

What is Exchange server? So this the first doubt going to arise in a newbie’s mind.
“Exchange server is a server which is most popular for its messaging and collaborative software”

We have different versions of Exchange Server but currently we are using Exchange server 2003 and Exchange server 2007. These Exchange Servers are released by Microsoft, so therefore these exchange servers are called as Microsoft Exchange Sever, so we have only one Exchange server know as Microsoft Exchange server.

Microsoft Exchange server is extensively used by enterprise solutions as it is collaborative and messaging software by using Microsoft's Infrastructure solutions. Till now Microsoft has released different versions of Exchange server.

1.            Exchange server 4.0
2.            Exchange Server 5.0
3.            Exchange Sever 5.5
4.            Exchange Server 2000
5.            Exchange Server 2003
6.            Exchange Server 2007
These versions are introduces by overcoming the limitations of each and every version finally Exchange Sever 2003

The original version of Exchange Server was Exchange Server 4.0, this is the first version released by Microsoft and sold to public which was an upgrade to Microsoft Mail 3.5.  However Exchange Server being an Email server with a database eventually became the Active Directory service of Microsoft. Windows server 2000 got integrated with this Active directory service.

However as an updated version of each and every product releases into market, similarly Microsoft overcame the limitations of Exchange server 4.0 and introduced Exchange Server 5.0, Which brings the Exchange Administrative console into light and granting access to SMTP networks, by making these updations it introduced a Web-Based email  which made MS Outlook to introduce to the world.

Microsoft Exchange server 5.5 was introduce after upgrading and overcoming the drawbacks in exchange server 5.0. It was introduced in two different editions . Depending on the database size they differentiated these editions and named them as standard and enterprise editions. It brought a number of changes when compared to the previous versions of Exchange servers. It included so many features in Outlook .features include calendar support, IMAP4 and LDAP Support.

In the year 2000 Microsoft released a new version of Exchange Server by overcoming the limitations of all the previous versions. It increased the sizes of databases and increased the servers in number. Exchange server added color to messaging by adding a new feature named as Instant Messaging Which made it to migrate from Exchange Server 2000 to Exchange Server 2003.

Finally we are currently using Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007. Exchange Server 2003 was introduced such that it could be run on Windows server 2000 and can also run on 32-bit windows server 2003. Well this is used in large companies as Exchange server has compatibility modes which grants the user to switch to a new system. Exchange server 2003 comes up with a brilliant feature which is advance back or recovery of your damaged data. As updations are common to a product Exchange server 2007 was released by satisfying all the minimum requirements and meeting the needs of the people with no drawback left making the work easier of the large companies.