[Los Angeles, CA – Tuesday 31 August 2010]

ENow, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft infrastructure consulting and the
development of software to simplify systems management, announced today that Aegis Media, an
international marketing communications firm, has selected their award-winning Mailscape tool for
Microsoft Exchange Server and mobile device management. Mailscape provides insight into the firm’s
Exchange environment so that the Infrastructure Team can prevent costly email outages and enable
staff to better service clients.

The Systems Engineer for Aegis Media’s UK and Ireland offices selected Mailscape because its
monitoring dashboard gives him a quick, visual look at email status as a whole, and allows him to see
their Exchange and BlackBerry servers across all sites in one screen. Since the Infrastructure Team
manages multiple servers across 10 sites, having Mailscape installed and configured in less than two
hours saved them time and allowed them to start receiving benefits immediately.

ENow is constantly improving Mailscape by drawing inspiration from a global pool of Microsoft Most
Valuable Professionals. According to Exchange MVP Lasse Pettersson, “Mailscape’s graphical display of
data makes it easy enough that the Help Desk can quickly diagnose the cause of a problem and take a
more active role in monitoring the system. Plus, the customizable reporting makes it easy to create very
complex queries.”

Mailscape’s reporting capabilities empowered senior management at Aegis Media to control operational
expenditures. The Systems Engineer explains, “The reporting module saves me time when preparing
data for our monthly Service Delivery Review meetings with corporate management. The granularity
and overall quality of information helps them with charge-back for assigning IT costs per department.”

The Systems Engineer summarizes his experience thus far with Mailscape by stating, “My team’s goal of
providing our users with a more stable and efficient environment in which to operate has been realized
because of Mailscape.”

Aegis Group PLC is an international marketing communications group with more than 16,000 employees
worldwide. Listed on the London Stock Exchange as AGS.L, it is capitalized at ca. £1.5 billion.

To read the full Aegis Media Case Study, please visit www.enowinc.com.

For more information on Aegis Media, please visit www.aegisplc.com.

About ENow Inc

ENow is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft infrastructure consulting and the
development of software to simplify systems management. Our company’s flagship product is an award
winning utility called Mailscape that provides administrators with a ‘one-look dashboard view’ of the
entire Exchange environment. On the consulting side, we are experts at delivering Microsoft Active
Directory® and Exchange Server® solutions. For more information, call us at 1-877-TRY-ENOW or visit us
at www.enowinc.com.

For More Information

Tel +1 877 TRY ENOW
Email info@enowinc.com
Web www.enowinc.com

My latest Exchange Queue & A column for TechNet Magazine has been published and yes you guessed right this time with a special focus on Exchange 2010 SP1 which release a few days ago…

Read it here.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

One more white paper from MS IT Showcase published:

Enterprise IT organizations, including the Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) group, deal with service level agreements (SLAs) and power users accustomed to high levels of performance, availability, and responsiveness. The 180,000-plus users at Microsoft send over 15 million internal e-mail messages a day from more than 150 offices worldwide, as well as from home and while on the road. At Microsoft, many business-critical communication processes depend on the availability of messaging services provided through Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010.

Managing the complex Microsoft IT infrastructure is a team effort that involves many different groups, such as the Datacenter team, the Network Infrastructure team, the Active Directory® team, and the Exchange Messaging team. Overall, Microsoft IT manages two distinct environments: a pre-release production environment to test new product versions and upgrades prior to their release to manufacturing (RTM) and a corporate production environment to provide IT services to Microsoft users. Within these environments, the Microsoft IT Exchange Messaging team handles all Exchange-related operation, management, administration, and process optimization. In that role, the Exchange Messaging team works with many other peer teams at Microsoft IT, sharing its operations and process optimization expertise to help those teams implement efficient and reliable operations processes.

The Messaging Operations group within the Exchange Management team must meet several reliability, availability, and performance targets (such as 99.99 percent availability of Exchange services). To meet these targets, the Messaging Operations group makes use of industry-standard methodologies such as Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). For example, the operations model that the Messaging Operations group implemented based on the ITIL framework relies on structured incident management, problem handling, configuration management, and change control processes. These processes enable the Messaging Operations group to capitalize on Exchange Server 2010 administrative features, such as the Exchange Management Console (EMC), to reduce operations costs and ensure efficiencies.

The key to success in daily operations is the right combination of technology, people, and processes. For example, the Messaging Operations group uses technical tools, such as the built-in product features of Exchange Server 2010 and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, combined with a clear team structure and work processes that facilitate collaboration. Built-in product features of Exchange Server 2010, such as Database Availability Groups (DAGs), help the Messaging Operations group meet 99.99 percent availability and performance targets. New tools and software features, and optimization opportunities gained through customer feedback, enable the Messaging Operations group to analyze and implement changes when necessary to keep pace with the innovative and agile business landscape at Microsoft.

This white paper is for business decision makers, technical decision makers, and operations managers. It assumes that the reader has a working knowledge of Microsoft Windows Server® 2008, Active Directory, Exchange Server 2010, and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. Because many of the principles and procedures discussed in this paper are based on standard operations methodologies, a high-level understanding of the MOF, MSF, and ITIL models is also helpful.

Continue here.

The DPM team has just released several white papers and among them the How to protect Exchange with DPM 2010 white paper.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

In part 3 of my Load Balancing Exchange 2010 Client Access Servers using an Hardware Load Balancer Solution (Part 1) multi-part article here on MSExchange.org I,among other things, uncovered how you enable SSL offloading for the misc. protocols and client services in Exchange 2010.

Now since my articles (besides occasional updates) belongs to the category of relatively static content (albeit not a static as book content), I’ve created a dedicated Exchange Wiki page over on the TechNet Wiki that also contains the steps necessary in order to configure SSL offloading for the Exchange 2010 protocols and client access services in Exchange 2010. Since SSL offloading in Exchange 2010 is vital to most organizations using hardware load balancers, and because SSL offloading is a topic that still evolves, a TechNet Wiki page is a perfect companion to the original article. The cool thing about the Wiki page is that everybody can contribute!

You find the Wiki page here.

Update
The Wiki page has now been reviewed and approved by the Exchange product group.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

Including a MOF Reliability Workbook for Exchange 2010 Client Access and Transport and MOF Reliability Workbook for Exchange 2010 Mailbox Services.

Read more and download here.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

[Los Angeles, Thursday, 22 July 2010]

ENow, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in infrastructure consulting and the development of software to simplify systems management, today released Feature Pack 2 for their award-winning Exchange and Mobile Device Management solution, Mailscape. The new version helps companies ensure a smooth migration to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, streamlines daily IT tasks associated with e-mail system administration, and provides over 40 new reports, including mobile device usage.

Microsoft’s latest messaging platform delivers simpler high availability and disaster recovery solutions and provides faster and easier ways for users to communicate so that businesses can realize productivity gains; however, the migration process can be costly and time-consuming.

Mailscape’s reporting module provides administrators with key statistics to help them plan their migration, clean up their environment, validate that new servers were configured correctly, and build migration batches. Mailscape’s One Look dashboard provides a graphical overview of the entire messaging system, enabling both the Exchange team and help desk to reduce problem-diagnosis and resolution times. New reports allow management to reduce IT operational costs and ensure Service Level Agreements are being met. Lastly, a new monitoring feature sends a round-trip e-mail from inside the organization to a third-party account to test that external communications are delivered successfully and in a timely fashion.

“The design goals behind the latest version of Mailscape were strategically aligned with the challenges organizations face today,” commented Jay Paul Gundotra, Principal Architect of ENow. “Transitioning to a new messaging platform is an inherently risky process. Mailscape reduces the risk of data loss and service interruption by monitoring both the source and target systems, ensuring a successful upgrade. Another big challenge for companies is dealing with the ever-increasing number of mobile devices they must support. These devices pose a security threat if not properly managed. Our new mobile reports make it easier to keep track of what types of devices are connected to your network.”

About ENow Inc

ENow is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft infrastructure consulting and the development of software to simplify system management.  Our company’s flagship product is an award winning utility called Mailscape that provides administrators with a ‘one-look dashboard view’ of the entire Exchange environment.  On the consulting side, we are experts at delivering Microsoft Active Directory® and Microsoft Exchange Server® solutions. For more information, call 1-877-TRY-ENOW, email us at info@enowinc.com, or visit us at www.enowinc.com.

Again another great write up by my buddy Greg Taylor.

Read it here.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

Greg Taylor wrote an excellent new white paper covering the aspects of how you publish Exchange 2010 using UAG or TMG.

Read more and download from this post on the MS Exchange Team blog.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

So I used to be involved in writing some of these white papers in the past, but I’ve moved on to other just as interesting projects both within and outside Microsoft.

Many of you have asked me when this white paper would be available and finally I can say now.

Go download a fresh copy here. It’s still not listed on the Microsoft IT Showcase site but will be soon…. You can also read the online version here.

Until later,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture