Exchange on the Internal Cloud

Introductory Resources

White Papers

• Exchange 2007 Performance on VMware vSphere
  2009 performance analysis showing near-linear scalability for Exchange workloads.
• Best Practices Guide - Microsoft Exchange Solutions on VMware
  An in-depth VMware white paper describing best practices for deploying Exchange 2007 on VI 3.5.  Recommended as a design resource.
• Deploying Exchange Server 2007 on VMware Infrastructure: A VMware Internal Case Study
  VMware’s internal case study for deploying Exchange with CCR in a totally virtual, highly available environment with advanced disaster recovery capabilities.
• Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Building a Better Platform with VMware® Infrastructure 3
  Key benefits that can be realized from virtualizing Exchange.  This VMware white paper focuses on VI3 features as specifically applied to an Exchange messaging environment.
• Deployment Guide—Microsoft Exchange Solutions on VMware
  A detailed VMware guide for transitioning from Exchange 2003 on physical hardware to an Exchange 2007 environment on virtual machines, including guidance for maximizing efficiency with virtualization tools.
• Solution Brief—Availability and Recovery Options: Microsoft Exchange Solutions on VMware
  A VMware Solution Brief describing the benefits of virtualization for improving availability and recovery of Exchange services, and a review of the tools available for accomplishing these goals.
• Virtualizing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with VMware ESX Server 3
  Analysis performed in 2007 by Dell, this paper discusses performance of Exchange 2007 on ESX Server v3.0, concluding that virtualizing all Exchange roles delivers acceptable quality of service.
• 16,000 Exchange Users Solution on a VMware/EMC Environment
  A joint VMware / EMC white paper that validates building-block guidelines for virtualizing an Exchange 2007 Mailbox server role using a real-world deployment scenario. The design is based on a virtualized platform with VI3 and EMC® CLARiiON® storage.
• Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 mailbox roles on VMware Infrastructure 3 using HP ProLiant servers and HP Storageworks
  An HP whitepaper comparing performance of Exchange Server 2007 mailbox roles on physical versus virtual platforms that concludes performance is acceptable using both approaches.
• Microsoft Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure 3 and NetApp iSCSI Storage
  A NetApp white paper describing a design for Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure 3 and NetApp storage that covers sizing the Exchange environment with a reliable building block design and results of performance testing and functional validation of backup, restore, and disaster recovery.
• Design and Sizing Examples: Microsoft Exchange Solutions on VMware
  A VMware paper proposing reliable design guidelines for an Exchange 2007 infrastructure ranging in size from 4,000 mailboxes to 64,000 mailboxes.  Server, storage and network design are addressed.

Featured Resources

• Best Practices for Virtualizing Active Directory
  2008 paper describing techniques and best practices for deploying Active Directory.
• Free Exchange "Getting Started" Kit

Success Stories

• Navy Marine Corps Intranet (350,000 mailboxes)
  Virtualize 350,000 Exchange 2003 mailboxes to control costs, improve availability, and increase manageability.
• University of Plymouth
  Run a large 50,000 mailbox Exchange deployment at lower cost, simplify availability and disaster recovery, while increasing Exchange manageability.
• Nuvasive
  Consolidate BlackBerry, Exchange, and SAP infrastructure. Accelerate deployment and improve availability and disaster recovery.
• Boise Inc.
  Consolidate Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Oracle Databases infrastructure, simplify systems management, and develop a disaster-avoidance plan.
• The Cleveland Indians Company
  Consolidate Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server infrastructure, implement a streamlined Disaster Recovery plan, and increase application manageability.
• ViaHealth
  Consolidate large Oracle and SQL databases, Exchange, and McKesson. Reduce TCO, simplify administration, provide greater control over computing resources, and increase availability.
• Alstom
  AccelerateBlackBerry Enterprise Server deployment and scale dynamically to meet growing user demands.
• Bowdoin College
  Use VMware Infrastructure 3 to maintain a cost-effective enterprise-class disaster recovery solution for Exchange and several other critical applications.
• Genilogix
  Create entirely virtualized IT environments that eliminate server sprawl, provide optimum availability and deliver excellent disaster recovery for Microsoft Exchange.
• Princeton Softech
  Use VMware Infrastructure and VMware Lab Manager as lab automation solutions for creating, capturing, suspending, indexing, archiving and recreating testing environments. Read our White Papers.