Exchange – Here, There and Everywhere
Published Sep 20 2020 01:08 PM 31K Views
Subject Matter Experts:
Exchange might have been around for more than 20 years but that doesn’t mean it’s old – Come and hear about our plans for the future of both on-prem and cloud, we’ll talk through some of the lifecycle changes taking place and give you an all around look inside the thing that is – Exchange.
5 Comments
Copper Contributor

@Greg Taylor - EXCHANGE 

 

From the consultant perspective, I have to go to my client tomorrow morning and tell them that MS' official position is that they need to deploy a soon-to-be-deprecated product, even though they have NEVER deployed Exchange or even extended the schema (coming from hosted Exchange to EXO) and are using BitTitan to migrate to EXO, without any ETA on a way out after years of the community requesting a solution on Uservoice - or abandon AADC sync.

 

Some Uservoice examples:

Request Exchange hybrid key for Exchange Server 2019 activation with Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HC...

Ability to manage Exchange Online without the requirement to have Exchange on-premise

Hybrid Exchange Scenario - Replace Server with Lightweight Tool

Decommission Exchange Server after Migration to Office 365

 

This client has asked me why this has to be done and all I can really say is MS is unable to support a configuration of AADC so that EXO can write to the portions of AAD that normally get synced from ADDS. The "source of authority" reasoning I've found referenced repeatedly seems inapplicable in an environment where there is no historical Exchange presence and other reliance on having that info written back to ADDS.

 

For background, they have been using hosted Exchange with a 3rd-party Vendor for a decade with ONLY OUTBOUND AD attribute sync (so no trusts/linked mailboxes and NOTHING else is EVER written to ADDS) without issue, but now that MS are going to be their hosting provider I have to tell them there is no better solution than to deploy and maintain Exchange.

 

Again, I just offer this as honest feedback about how this looks from the receiving end. We would all love to know what the big hurdle is here, at least for clients without an exiting Exchange deployment in their environment.

Copper Contributor

@Greg Taylor - EXCHANGE 

Staying On-Premises for ever, why updating to Exchange Server vNext and paying a monthly suscription when there are no any updates, new features or improvements to On-Premises Exchange for years?

 

All updates, new features or improvements in last years are for Exchange Online only. I'm reclaiming more features, like DKIM support and more for On-Premises Exchange Server, but nothing.

 

Also, in all posts in blogs, tells about that improvements and new features goes only to Exchange Online. The Exchange Team are only focusing on Exchange Online and only little improvements or bug fixes goes to On-Premises Exchange Server. Seems to be deprecating On-Premises Exchange Server.

 

The Exchange Team told in a blog post in 2019:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/faqs-from-exchange-and-outlook-booths-at-2...

Office 365 is our focus for features. We ship features to Office 365 first and may deliver a sub-set of those features that make sense for on-premises. We look at the capabilities individually to determine how readily they can be deployed and sustained in on-premises landscapes, but the maximum value and feature set will always be in Exchange Online. 

 

There is no roadmap for the DKIM and DMARC features to be included with Exchange on-premises. For customers who are looking for these features can use Standalone EOP for their inbound and outbound mail routing and use the Exchange Online DKIM and DMARC features. This way, they can also use additional Antispam and Threat protection features which come with Exchange Online Protection.  

Copper Contributor

@Greg Taylor - EXCHANGE 

 

Two things Greg:

 

1. I don't think you genuinely understand the need for a serverless recipient admin solution. Your team has created far more complex solutions than writing some attributes to AD. Certainly not a priority since such an admin tool would drain that bit of revenue that comes from licensing the admin server.

 

2. Will there be a trial version available for those without a Volume License who want to get their hands dirty, or will they be treated second class and denied access, just as it happened with Exchange 2019?

 

Thanks.

 

@SuperCocoLoco - nNext Exchange isn't primarily about features, that hasn't changed. It's primarily about running a supported product (with what is already a pretty extensive feature set) on-premises. There are (many) customers who want just that. If you want new features, use Exchange Online. If you can't, the feature set won't change much. 

 

 

@Zoltan Erszenyi - respectfully, I fully understand the need for removal of the last Exchange Server on-prem and I can assure you it's not about revenue. 

 

Exchange Server 2019 is already, and this new version will be available on MSDN/Visual Studio for testing.