Explore the New Features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2019

Robert Doyle

Microsoft has announced the release of Exchange 2019, with an anticipated release to manufacturing targeted for fall 2018. This is welcome news for organizations not yet on Office 365—even though Microsoft does mention that Office 365 is still the best and most cost-effective solution. Still, let’s take a look at some of the key features of this new release.

Related: The Knowledge you Need to Migrate from Exchange to Office 365

Windows Server Core
Support for Windows Server Core is finally here! Exchange Server 2019 can now be installed on Window Server 2016 and 2019 Core, providing a secure platform for your Exchange. The Exchange team recommends this as the best choice to install Exchange Server 2019. GUI interface will still be available. It’s key to note that Exchange 2019 can only be installed on Windows Server 2019.

Performance
Exchange 2019 will support up to 48 CPU cores and 256GB of memory to take advantage of new hardware developments. This is a huge increase compared to Exchange 2016, which supports 24 CPU cores and 192GB of memory. Larger organizations will be able to deploy fewer Exchange servers to save on licensing and reduce their data center footprint.

Microsoft has incorporated Bing search technology to improve the search experience. The index is now part of the mailbox database, which eliminates the need to manage additional log files and requirements to rebuild content indexes. This will decrease database failover times due to the mailbox database copy.

End-user Experience
Exchange 2019 will feature some improvements already utilized in Exchange Online, such as Do Not Forward and Simplified Calendar Sharing. Additionally, Microsoft is adding the ability for admins to manage events on users’ calendars and to assign and delegate permissions more easily through new PowerShell cmdlets.

Unified Messaging
Microsoft has eliminated the Unified Messaging role from Exchange 2019. Exchange 2019 will not support using a third-party PBX or Skype for Business Server to Exchange Server. This means that if you require voicemail functionality, you would have two options: migrate to Skype for Business Server 2019 using Cloud Voicemail or migrate to Office 365 with Cloud Voicemail. And there’s good news—Microsoft has implemented several paths to reduce some of the cost to transition to Cloud Voicemail.

Conclusion
The Exchange Server 2019 news shows that Microsoft is still dedicated to providing solutions to customers who prefer on-premises software installations, while also continuing to drive improvement in the cloud. Microsoft’s release of Exchange 2019 tends to focus on larger customer environments.

If you’re interested in learning more about Exchange 2019—or Office 365—reach out to the experts at Connection. We can help determine the right fit for your organization and develop an optimized plan for any new software installation.

Robert Doyle is a Lead Systems Engineer at Connection with more than 22 years of experience. He specializes in Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, and Azure, and he is also a Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert.

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