STILL no flying cars

Those of my readers who were following me when I first started the blog over a year ago will remember my treatise on the lack of a long-promised improvement to Exchange – namely an overhaul of the database engine.  Well, Exchange 2010 has gone beta (formerly Exchange 14), and we’re still waiting for it.

Yet again, Microsoft has created a revolutionary (in the colonial sense) jump in Exchange technology while simply updating the tired old ESE engine that has been part of Exchange since 5.5.  While the older engine does work, it is still not the SQL back end that we’ve been promised for over a decade now. 

Change is hard, I understand that.  Re-writing the Exchange system to embrace a more flexible, more open database platform would require an amazing development effort and take time and resources.  I really do get all that.  However, *giving* us a more flexible, more open database engine would go much farther toward providing an upgrade worthy of the name *upgrade* instead of one that should have been provided as a service pack for Exchange 2007.

Integrated archiving is a very good thing.  Enhanced recovery options are also good – though they’re still built on log-shipping and therefore not the best possible solution (see disclaimer below, I’m biased on this topic). Many of the tools in this release are quite welcome, but not a really good reason to spend thousands of dollars in tight times on a brand new messaging platform.  A revised – preferably SQL based – database engine would indeed have made Exchange 2010 cost-justifiable.  With file-system streaming, better control and more access for those who are granted it, Exchange could become the true cornerstone of messaging and collaboration it was designed to be.  Without it, Exchange is just another email system, and nothing more.

Still lagging in support for Public Folders, even though the market has clearly shown that they must remain part of Exchange for the foreseeable future.  Still relying on log-shipping (which could benefit from CDM technologies in SQL).  Still forcing users to learn new tools over and over and over again.  Exchange 2010 is not what we expected, and not truly what we wanted.  If it was released as Exchange 2007 R2 or even a Service Pack, I think the market would have embraced it, but as a brand new (non-backward compatible) platform, IT managers will be hard pressed to get this on their datacenter floors.

Yes, I am biased on topics revolving around High Availability, and I am clear to say that in my blog postings and conversations.  Even in light of this stated fact, I feel I have to speak out about Exchange 2010 and the timing, structure and nature of its release. Vista was a nightmare, Exchange 2010 may become a disaster.