Microsoft has continued this momentum with its latest release, Exchange 2010. Exchange 2010 delivers the gamut of new and more powerful features that will save you and your employees time while equipping them with the latest tools to increase their productivity. Exchange 2010 adds a new architecture and updated technologies that improve performance and support much larger mailbox sizes without taking a performance hit. There’s also a much improved browser experience in Outlook Web Access.

While Microsoft Exchange is a great piece of software, it is also quite complex. Let’s face it, technology breaks, runs into problems every now and then and needs maintenance to perform optimally. The impact to you and your clients can be minimized with Rackspace Hosted Exchange 2010, a new offering that combines two best-in-class companies doing what they do best: Microsoft providing the software and Rackspace offering the service, support and reliability.

Email has become mission critical. When it comes down to the wire, you can’t afford the risk of not getting emails from your customers. It is your responsibility to provide a reliable email system and to make sure it runs properly, 24×7. An enterprise-class email service that can natively connect your email, contacts and calendar to virtually any mobile device like Blackberry, iPhone and Android is an integral business tool. You also need to be able to access your email via multiple browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Meanwhile, you require the security and reliability that a mature email collaboration system can provide, along with reliable support that will pick up the phone quickly and fix any problems.

Rackspace Hosted Exchange 2010 will help you sleep well knowing that your email system will work, that there is a group of experts making sure your business essential communications work, even while you sleep.

Rackspace Hosted Exchange 2010 offers continuous replication of data and automatic failover that allows for (if you even notice anything amiss) faster recovery than previously. Mailbox moves on the back end database can occur without interrupting client connectivity and scheduled maintenances can be done with a lot less or no intrusion. This means fewer business disruptions due to email problems than in the past.

Last year, Rackspace was voted Best Hosted Exchange Provider for 2011 by Redmond magazine, “The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community.”  We also just won the prestigious and coveted 2012 Gold Stevie Award for Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year. These awards prove the value and importance our customers place in Fanatical Support ®, which has become the industry standard for support. With Rackspace on your side, you won’t have to worry about your email system anymore. And in the event of a problem or question you’ll always be able to talk to a live human when you call. We also offer chat support and the ability to open support tickets from within our control panel.

We invite you to check out the power of enterprise-grade email from Rackspace Hosted Exchange, which has a proven track-record of supporting Microsoft Exchange since 2006.

So what’s going to happen to your business in 2012?

That depends on the decision you’ll make about the technology your business uses to communicate with the world and who you choose to partner with that can help make that vision come true.

The Microsoft OWA web interface has two versions: OWA Premium and OWA Light.

Which version you’re presented with is based on which browser you use.  OWA Premium is only accessible when using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.  If you’re using any other browser, you’ll end up using OWA Light.  As the name Premium suggests, this version most closely replicates Outlook’s high-end functionality and experience. The Light version has reduced functionality and looks different from the OWA premium version.

Check out a video demonstration of OWA Premium from Microsoft.

The first question we get when folks try to use OWA in another browser is usually, “Why doesn’t OWA Premium work in non-Internet Explorer browsers?”

There is a reason for two versions. No, it’s not part of a widespread plot by Microsoft to force us to use their product for full OWA functionality. According to the Microsoft Exchange Team’s blog, (scroll down to the last section called “Why doesn’t Premium work on Firefox?“).

You may be wondering, “What’s in the premium version that’s not in the Light version?” Quite a bit, actually. Here’s a list of what OWA Premium includes that the Light version does not (from the Microsoft Exchange team’s blog):

• Tasks module
• Task-specific properties (only the text of the task items can be seen)
• Search for mail items (you can only search Contacts and the Address Book)
• Reminders
• HTML composition (no HTML editing or formatting options, only text composition)
• Flags and Categories
• Weekly view in Calendars (the daily view is the only view)
• Free/Busy grid for Appointment/Meeting Scheduling Assistant (only “Suggested Times” are given)
• Print
• Spell Check
• Conversation View
• Account Quota information
• Recover Deleted Items
• Calendar month view
• Add/edit distribution lists
• Public Folder access
• S/MIME features
• Add/edit rules
• Open Other User’s Mailbox (with special permissions)
• View Shared Calendars, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, Inbox, Inbox subfolder and Sent Items (with special permissions)

As you can see, there are some major collaboration features available in the OWA Premium version. This is the major reason we suggest using IE. In addition, there are some added abilities of OWA Premium that you may not know about.

Have questions about these special capabilities? Ask us.