MS Exchange Server is a calendaring software, a mail server and contact manager that runs on Windows Server.
The term “Exchange Migration” means migrating mailboxes and mail content from Exchange Server to another platform and from other platforms to Exchange Server. The entire user mailbox data stored within Exchange Server can be easily migrated to Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes and vice-versa. Administrators using IBM Lotus Notes or Novell GroupWise can also migrate their email data from IBM Lotus Notes to MS Exchange Server and can easily perform the mailbox migration from Novell GroupWise to Exchange.
In search of a highly adaptive and cost-effective communication tool, organizations may sometime need to perform Exchange migration. Numerous reasons that might be responsible for performing migration include merger or acquisition with another organization, consolidation of multiple disparate email systems, transition from Novell-centric environments, change in business requirements, features and benefits provided by vendors, or cloud-based email.
Talking about the market share of Microsoft Exchange Server, according to a recent study conducted by The Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, it has been found that MS Exchange Server currently account for 51% of worldwide mailboxes in business email and collaboration market. With launch of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, it introduces a host of new features for its on-premises offerings.
1. Novell GroupWise Vs Microsoft Exchange
Some reasons leading many organizations to migrate from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Exchange include:
- Anywhere Access - Users can access email, voicemail, calendars, and contacts from virtually any location using virtually any device with MS Exchange.
- Enterprise-grade Security and Availability - MS Exchange provides security and availability to meet or exceed the requirements of any organization.
- User Productivity - Users are already familiar with MS Office products, so MS Outlook and MS Outlook Web App help them to be more productive.
- Flexible Deployment Options - With the advent of private and public cloud services, organizations need flexibility in how to deploy Exchange Server. Various deployment options provided by Exchange Server include On-premises (private cloud) solutions, Off-premises (cloud) solutions, and Hybrid, on-premises and off-premises solutions
2. Exchange VS Novell GroupWise
- Novell GroupWise makes it easy to manage users and groups across networks, system types and cross-platforms (Windows, Linux, NetWare)
- GroupWise is more flexible and accommodating over different versions of MS Exchange and supports different operating systems and even a combination of OS platforms.
- MS Exchange is more vulnerable to security attacks as compared to Novell GroupWise. Also, there is a downtime associated in recovering Exchange system upon virus attack. On the contrary, installing Novell GroupWise is much secure.
- MS Exchange lacks collaboration features like instant messaging facility along with licensing and compatibility options as compared to Novell GroupWise.
- The cost of upgrading Exchange involves licensing costs for both servers and users and also requires upgrading the Active Directory, whereas, GroupWise is licensed per user basis thus with reduced cost.
3. Exchange Server VS Lotus Notes
- Lotus Notes offers a lot of flexibility in terms of supported OS like Linux, Mac OS and Windows as well as Microsoft clients.
- Lotus Notes offers excellent messaging and collaboration capabilities, easy data synchronization, ease of deployment and better security.
- Lotus Notes helps in sharing documents and information easily, promotes instant messaging, facilitates template-based application creation and supports different web services.
4. Lotus Notes VS Exchange
MS Exchange, a flexible, reliable, adaptable and cost-effective email collaboration and communication platform offers numerous beneficial features making administrators to switch from Lotus Notes environment to Exchange platform. Some of them are cloud network support, easy management and control, mailbox archiving feature, powerful retention policies, communication across multiple devices, better privacy and security, support for industry-standard protocols offering anywhere access to mailbox data, interactive email communication features, and much more.
Types of Exchange Migration
Under this heading, we are going to discuss in what manner user mailbox data can be migrated from Exchange to different platforms and vice-versa.
- Exchange to Novell GroupWise - In this email migration, user can easily switch from MS Exchange Server to Novell GroupWise platform.
- Exchange to Lotus Notes (EDB to NSF) - Under this type of email migration, a user can easily migrate both Outlook PST files and Exchange EDB database files to Lotus Notes NSF files.
- Novell GroupWise to Exchange Server - In this email migration, a user can easily migrate multiple Novell GroupWise mailboxes to Exchange Server or can convert single Novell GroupWise mailbox to PST file.
- IBM Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange Server - In this email migration, a system administrator can efficiently convert unlimited Lotus Notes NSF files to MS Outlook PST files and user mailboxes from Lotus Notes Domino Server to Microsoft Exchange Server.
- Exchange OST Recovery - Moreover, one may require performing recovery of Exchange OST files. The corrupt, damaged or inaccessible MS Exchange Offline Storage Table (OST) files can be easily converted to PST files to make them fully accessible with MS Outlook. Need for performing Exchange OST recovery may arise due to corruption in Exchange Server, accidental deletion of user’s account on Exchange Server, Exchange Server crash, MS Exchange Server downtime, virus attacks, accidental shutdown, etc.
Advantages an Offline folder or Cached Exchange Mode offers:
- Allows working with the Exchange mailbox even there is no network connection availability.
- In case any disaster happens on the Exchange server, like Server crashing, Server database corruption, etc., the Offline folder file on the local computer still contain a copy of your Exchange mailbox, with some offline updates.
