By now many of you have leveraged the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator. And my name is forever cursed as a result. Why wouldn't it be with over 116 questions that have to be answered and nearly 30 results tables? Yes, the calculator was complicated; I'm sure many of you have thought, "what in the hell were we thinking?"
And let's face it, there are a number of smart folks that have used the calculator and hats off to you guys for questioning our formulas. Yes, I hate to admit it, but we made up a bunch of the calculations (and by we, I really mean Greg Taylor; that guy doesn't know anything about storage, but loves Excel and has coveted owning the storage calculator for a long time). Honestly, we didn't try to make it that difficult, but there were some back room deals with certain vendors that resulted in our hands being tied (yes there were some awkward photos of the ESE and HA teams that sealed our doom).
But times have changed. A few weeks ago, the Exchange team managed to procure some free-lance ninjas. Last night, they successfully infiltrated the vendors in question and retrieved the compromising photos. I never saw so many high fives in my life last night in the Outlook Live datacenter (aka the command center)! That's right folks! Not only does Exchange rock, but we also have some silent ass-kicking ninjas now. That's some epic awesomeness right there. I dare say that we shouldn't expect any future versions of Windows to block upgrades of Exchange any longer! Greg Thiel was so happy he started jumping up and down yelling "I'm going to Disney World!" over and over, and at this very second is boarding a plane to Florida with his family.
But I digress. I'm finally pleased to provide you with the calculator that I've wanted to release since we dreamed up Exchange 2007. This calculator is very streamlined - it only asks a handful of questions and provides you with the data you need in an easy to read manner.
All of us in Exchange are really sorry for all the endless nights and loss of hair we caused all of you over the years with these ridiculous calculators. Hopefully one day you'll forgive us (or me since part of those backroom deals required my name to go on the calculators. Don't ask).
Now, go tryout the new version of the calculator and let us know what you think.
Microsoft
