Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting – Part 2 “Hosting Description”

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In this series of posts I started with giving an overview about Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting here, and in this post I will go through Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting Description,

Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting introduces a new multi-tenant model with accompanying PowerShell Cmdlets. In this new design each specific Exchange Object (such as an Address List) associated with an organization is stored in its own Configuration Unit within the Configuration Container is Active Directory. So address lists, for example, are clearly tied to an organization and isolated. There is no need for the extra security settings and complex pointers that we used in HMC to associate Exchange Objects with a tenant organization. User objects are then stored in a tenant specific OU. This is what makes the product "natively" multi-tenant and is an example of why the previous Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) provisioning engine was no longer needed for Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting.

Another significant benefit is that the provisioning performance is much faster, and also more efficient in terms of the amount of code needed to leverage the Cmdlets. This allows a lot of flexibility for ISVs to create solutions on top of this, such as a reseller model and providing an API for Control Panels to leverage.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 supports hosting deployments and provides Hosting Partners the core feature-set of Exchange Server in a manner that can be deployed to multiple customers in a single installation, and provides ease of management and flexibility of provided features to end-users.

The hosting solution available for Exchange 2010 SP1 includes most of the features and functionality available in Exchange 2010 SP1 Enterprise deployments, but also includes features and functionality that will allow you to create and manage tenant organizations.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 will form part of the suite of multi-tenant capable products that will replace the Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 4.5 solution.

The following features and functionality are unique to hosting deployments:

  • Hosting Installation   When you install Exchange 2010 SP1 for hosting deployments, you will run the installation from the command line and include the /hosting switch. Once installed, your servers will be running in Hosting Mode.
  • Tenant Organization Configuration   Because you will be creating and managing multiple organizations in the hosting deployment, you can use cmdlets and parameters that aren't available to Enterprise deployments.
  • Service Plans   A service plan allows you to enable or disable certain features when deploying tenant organizations. They simplify tenant administration by automatically setting up feature configuration and automatic feature provisioning of mailboxes. In addition, service plans allow you to grant the correct set of RBAC permissions to tenant based on available features.
  • Mailbox Plans   A mailbox plan is a template that automatically populates multiple user properties and assigns default permissions to new or existing user accounts. You use mailbox plans to provision accounts for a particular user population with a common default configuration.

In the coming post in this series I will go deeply in Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting Deployment and Installation steps that you will enjoy.

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