Outlook 2003 is a great email client for a wide variety of servers. Whether you're using Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP to get to your email server, you can use Outlook 2003 as a client to good advantage. That said, some of the new Outlook 2003 features will work only if you're using Exchange 2003 (not an earlier version) as your email server. That's because the Outlook and Exchange teams have worked together to optimise the protocols that the two use to communicate. Some particular features that require Exchange 2003 on the server include:
- Compressed and optimised protocols for faster email downloading.
- Logging on over the Internet.
- Improved synchronisation capabilities.
- Support for local caching of server mailboxes.
- Support for transparent online/offline transitions.
- Client performance monitoring (from the perspective of the server).
Of course, there are many other features in Exchange 2003 beyond the Outlook-specific advances. With Microsoft including Exchange as a member of the "Office 2003 System," it's worth a quick look at some of these features. So here's a quick Exchange 2003 list:
- The new Outlook Web Access interface
- Support for WAP and iMode communications with mobile devices
- Eight-way clustering for better scalability and uptime
- Built-in antispam hooks for third-party vendors
- Improvements to the virus-scanning API
- Kerberos security
- An API that allows snapshot backup without taking down the server
- Dynamic distribution lists
- Exchange Server Objects (XSO), which is a new .NET-style programming interface
So, if you can afford it, you'll want to upgrade your email servers to Exchange 2003 to best support Outlook 2003 clients. But that's it, right?
Windows 2003 too!
Well...not quite. You can install Exchange 2003 on a Windows 2000 server (provided that you have SP3 installed on the server, and for security reasons, you should do that anyway). But to enable the complete Exchange 2003 functionality, you need to be running Windows Server 2003. That's because the new Exchange depends on the new Windows for some of its advanced features:
- Outlook access over the Internet
- Eight-way clustering
- Enhanced Active Directory integration
- Faster backups and restores
There isn't time to go into all the features of Windows 2003, which have been adequately covered elsewhere. But it's fair to say that most people don't think about upgrading their servers to a new operating system when considering whether to switch to a new version of their email client. Of course, upgrading a server to a new version of Windows is not something to be taken lightly. Besides the significant cost of the new version, you need to take into account possible downtime, the potential difficulty of migrating settings, and the need to retrain your server administrators. There are real benefits to the upgrade, but it's not a decision that you should rush into. So what's the bottom line?
Outlook 2003 is undoubtedly the best version of Outlook yet. In most organisations, email is the one application that sits open on everyone's desk, all day, every day. So it makes sense to buy the best email application that you can get; even minor productivity improvements will quickly add up for such a pervasive application. With that in mind, it's easy to recommend upgrading to Outlook 2003. But you need to have a realistic estimate of the impact and costs of the upgrade process itself, particularly if you elect to go the full route and install Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2003 to handle the email server chores for your organisation. Microsoft, of course, would love for you to upgrade everything; that's one reason it's calling it an Office "System" these days. But your own needs and budget may have other ideas. To make the right decision for your organisation, there's no substitute for getting some "sandbox time" with the product. Set up Outlook 2003 using test accounts on your current email server. Then set up a test server running Exchange 2003 on Windows 2003. Take a look at the differences in functionality, and you'll be on your way to knowing whether the advances are enough to justify the upgrades in your own company.
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