So, I have just finished an roll out of Exchange 2007....

[Jay]

.... and I quite like it!

I have used HP Contacts, SCALIX, Mailsite Fusion, HP OpenMail/Samsung Contact and I think 2003 Server with 2007 Exchange is the best combo I have come across. It integrates very well, its not a total nightmare to setup (Unlike SCALIX) and I have it running on a ESXi VM with 300GB RAID 5 and a Xeon 2.4 with 2GB RAM. I also like the webmail setup, its very good and slighly better than mailsite's Pro offering.

The only issue is setup cost, Mailsite is free for 20 mail boxes and then around £300 a year for 50 users, even though you pay every year for mailsite the upgrades are free. Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition is over £1000 for 5 users and then a further £300 for every batch of 5 users you add. (the proces may have changed since I looked though) and when Microsoft introduces a new version of Exchange you then have to buy the new version and licences (you can get a discounted if you already own licenses, if you push) I am sure there are other ways to go about licencing exchange that work out cheaper but, at the moment, I can't find it.

What do you think of Exchange 2007?

[gss03]

Sounds like you want to add Software Assurance to that so that if MS upgrade - you get to upgrade too, rather than having those huge upfront costs again!

[Jay]

yes, i looked into that. There was a reason why the people at the very top didn't want to go with it, I forget why now though.

[gss03]

SA costs ~ two thirds the cost of the original licence and is only valid for 3 years. So chances are that if and when MS bring out the next version of exchange it'd be outwith that 3 year period!
I've only once ever got SA on any MS product, that being Office for Mac 2004. Purchased about a month before 2008 came out.
Wouldn't purchase it under any other circumstances usually.

[Zoom7000]

Exchange 2007 is a very good product IMO. I use it at work and have had good experiences with it. We have had the odd 1 or 2 issues, but there is lots of support available for it. Costs aren't too much of an issue for us as I work in a school and we a very heavily subsidised.

I'm not too aware of the freeware alternatives. I've heard a few mentions of "Zimbra" on other forums. However, I've not yet seen anything with the compatibility and level of integration (with AD) like Exchange.

[Moby-Dick]

There are parts of E 2k7 I like - but in some of the larger installations it can be a real pain , expecially if your in a multi site environment. While I like powershell, its annoying to be forced to use it for certain tasks.

The initial investment for firms to be rolling it out is still possibly a bit of a restriction on adoption , expecially as you have to upgrade not only your exchange server , but your domain controllers to a 64 bit OS - fine for new rollouts , but less of an incentive for upgrades.

Thankfully I've only got to do a few more upgrades , but they are reasonably large ones ( several thousand users a piece )