Exchange 2013: Cool enhancements and hidden gems

The deeper I get into Microsoft Exchange 2013, the more I find to like. That doesn’t mean the transition has been free of frustrations. Some of my issues are merely aesthetic. For example, the new Exchange Admin Center is growing on me, but I’d like to be able to choose an alternate skin — the white space in the new 2013 design is blinding.

Other have to do with the experience of using Exchange 2013. The fact that I have to enable antispam agents on my Mailbox server through PowerShell, rather than a GUI, comes to mind. Some are more serious: I cannot migrate from Exchange 2007 or 2010 just yet because updates haven’t been released, and somehow Exchange 2003 has been cut out of the transition paths, meaning a double-hop from 2003 to 2010 to 2013 will be necessary.

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But Exchange 2013 has several gems of note. Unified messaging, high availability, and, when combined with SharePoint, enhanced collaboration features like the new Site Mailboxes add up to an even more robust messaging system — so I can live with the frustrations.

Here are five cool features that are worth playing with when you get your Exchange 2013 environment up and running.

Cool Exchange 2013 feature No. 1: Apps

It’s easy to miss this little feature. The Organization feature in Exchange Admin Center includes a tab called Apps. Through this often overlooked feature, you can provide special apps for end-users. Granted, users can search for apps themselves when working with Outlook, but by setting this up via Exchange Admin Center, you can control the process. Apps include Bing Maps, LinkedIn, Action Items, and a host of others.

Cool Exchange 2013 feature No. 2: Antimalware

I’ll be the first to say Exchange 2013’s built-in antimalware settings aren’t the most robust I’ve seen. But the fact that they’re included is worth celebrating, especially if, like me, you hate buying a big software package only to find you have to add all the other essentials à la carte. With Exchange, this means antivirus, a better backup solution, and a solid monitoring tool, among others — frustrating. Nonetheless, antimalware is a welcome addition. You can configure it to react to messages and notify both internal and external senders that an email was not delivered (and notify administrators).

Cool Exchange 2013 feature No. 3: Enhanced e-discovery

I hated the ineffectual multimailbox search in Exchange 2010. With Exchange 2013, we see real strides in e-discovery. FAST Search has been built into Exchange 2013, and the value shows up in many ways, including the speed and flexibility of the new In-Place eDiscovery & Hold feature. It also enhances the Legal Hold (or Litigation Hold) options from Exchange 2010, which are designed to stop users from deleting important emails for legal cases.

Cool Exchange 2013 feature No. 4: Data loss prevention

On the surface, Exchange 2013 data loss prevention is just a set of templates for creating transport rules to help block or deter the sending of sensitive end-user data via email. This might include Social Security numbers, credit card information, and so forth. But again, having this functionality built in is a great plus for admins. And it works. It can use a mail tip to help users make the right decision, or it can enforce more stringent policies automatically. The templates make it much easier to implement, and they are based on existing legislature, such as the Patriot Act or, depending on your country, other regulations.

Cool Exchange 2013 feature No. 5: Modern Public Folders

Although the migration process for legacy versions of Exchange is still hazy, I’ve really liked what Microsoft has done with Public Folders in Exchange 2013. On the one hand, there is no longer a Public Folder database; now you create a Public Folder mailbox inside the mailbox database. On the plus side, this means that a Public Folder mailbox can be included in high-availability DAG (database availability group) setups. On the negative side, we don’t have replicas where you can put Public Folder content closer to employees in other locations — the Public Folder mailbox approach only serves content from the active database location. But the method for setting these up is easier than ever.

As the year progresses, I’m sure I’ll uncover more things to like about Exchange 2013. And as more folks make the transition, we should keep one another informed of our findings. Happy hunting.

This story, “Exchange 2013: Cool enhancements and hidden gems,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese’s Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.