Formulating a Successful Design Strategy

The fundamental capabilities of Exchange Server 2003 are impressive. Improvements to security, reliability, and scalability enhance an already road-tested and stable Exchange platform. Along with these impressive credentials comes an equally impressive design task. Proper design of an Exchange Server 2003 platform will do more than practically anything to reduce headaches and support calls in the future. Many complexities of Exchange may seem daunting, but with a proper understanding of the fundamental components and improvements, the task of designing the Exchange Server 2003 environment becomes manageable.

This chapter focuses specifically on the Exchange Server 2003 components required for design. Key decision-making factors influencing design are presented and tied into overall strategy. All critical pieces of information required to design Exchange Server 2003 implementations are outlined and explained. This chapter does not focus on migration from existing platforms to Exchange Server 2003, which is instead covered in Chapters 15, “Migrating from Exchange v5.5 to Exchange Server 2003,” and 16, “Migrating from Exchange 2000 to Exchange Server 2003.”