Exchange on the Internal Cloud

Double the Performance of your Exchange Infrastructure

Run all Exchange server roles, including the mailbox server, on vSphere and match or exceed the performance you can achieve on physical servers. Each VMware vSphere virtual machine scales to 8 vCPU and 256 GB of memory, and can easily support the IO intensive requirements of Exchange mailbox servers. With VMware vSphere, multiple mailboxes can be scaled out on larger multicore servers to increase overall throughput. On a 16 core server, we have demonstrated that VMware vSphere can double the maximum throughput achieved from 8,000 to 16,000 end-user mailboxes.

Consolidate Exchange Infrastructure by 5X to 10X

Exchange infrastructure can typically be consolidated by 5X to 10X with vSphere. Consolidate multiple Exchange server roles onto shared physical servers and eliminate the need to deploy dedicated standby hosts for high availability and disaster recovery.

Deliver Exchange as a Dynamic, Cost-Efficient, and Reliable IT Service on the Internal Cloud

Maximize Exchange availability without the complexity of Microsoft Clustering. Leverage the Application vServices built into vSphere to provide simple and cost-effective high availability and disaster recovery for all Exchange server roles without needing dedicated standby servers. Alternatively, use Application vServices in conjunction with Microsoft Clustering to double your protection and provide best-in-class availability.

Scale Exchange dynamically to support increasing loads, eliminate sizing headaches, and reduce overprovisioning. Start with small memory and CPU configurations and gradually expand capacity to support growing load by increasing virtual machine size or migrating with VMware VMotion to larger hosts.

Accelerate delivery of new email services. Provision new Exchange instances or additional services such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server from pre-configured vApps in just minutes. Use VMware snapshots and clones to reproduce your Exchange environment in the lab for testing and troubleshooting, and eliminate the need to maintain a dedicated test environment. Automate release cycles with VMware Stage Manager.

Leverage Full Microsoft Support for ESX

Microsoft officially supports VMware ESX for running Microsoft Windows and major applications including Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server. VMware ESX was the first hypervisor to be validated under the Microsoft Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP), providing customers who run Windows Server and Microsoft applications with cooperative support from Microsoft and VMware. Customers can now run Exchange on vSphere with the peace of mind that they will receive the same level of support they received on physical servers.

New Microsoft licensing enables efficient use of VMotion. Microsoft licensing has recently been modified to allow customers to reassign licenses between physical servers as frequently as desired. This new licensing flexibility enables efficient use of VMotion for Windows Server and major applications including Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server.

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