Many companies ask me to look at their technology, especially when it’s relevant to Exchange 2010. Typically there’s a request to get involved by assessing the technology and perhaps writing about it.  Most of the time I politely decline because I don’t have the time or I don’t care to become involved for another reason. I do like to understand “interesting” technology and position it in a practical sense for others, which leads me to the reason why I’ll be presenting at a webinar at 16:00 (Ireland), 11:00am (Eastern), and 8:00am (Pacific) on Thursday, 24 February.

The webinar is sponsored by Marathon Technologies, who have an interest in bringing their EverRun MX technology to the attention of the Exchange community, especially companies in the small-to-medium business sector who are planning to migrate to Exchange 2010 from a legacy version. I’ve spent some time understanding the value proposition that Marathon brings to the table and believe that it is sufficiently interesting for me to participate in the webinar. Basically, I’ll talk about the major developments I expect in the Exchange market in 2011 and why I think there’s value to be gained in assessing the deployment of high availability technology like EverRun to complement the application-specific HA features of Exchange 2010.

If you’d like to join me at the webinar, please go to this site and register. The webinar is free so all you need to invest is some time. I don’t pretend that this technology is for everyone, but given the prediction of Ian Hameroff of Exchange product management fame that 60% of organizations currently running Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 plan to upgrade in the next year, it’s certainly an appropriate time for technology to be assessed so that it can be incorporated, when appropriate, into the migration plan.

The text from the email invite sent by Marathon is given below as a public service!

– Tony

2011 is a year of change and choice for organizations that depend on Exchange Server. Exchange is mission-critical business infrastructure; as essential to the continuity of your business as electricity and telecommunications. Think back to the last time your organization lost email access.  Not a good scene, was it?

So what’s ahead for Exchange Server?

Join Tony Redmond, one of the world’s leading Microsoft Exchange Server experts, as he shares predictions and practical advice for selecting, optimizing and protecting Exchange Server.

Marathon Technologies Microsoft MVP Series Webinar:
“Microsoft Exchange Server: Predictions, Practicalities and Availability”

Date: Thursday, February 24th
Time: 11 a.m. ET

Register For Our Webinar

Tony will elaborate on four major Exchange Server developments in 2011:

• Migration. Mainstream support for Exchange 2003, the majority of the Exchange installed base, ended in 2009. Do you move to Exchange 2010? And when? What are the trade-offs?
• Refresh. Migrations always mean some refreshes, but Exchange 2010 will require more than previous versions, including potentially significant core infrastructure optimization. What else should you think about when upgrading front- and back-end servers, OS and storage?
• Virtualization goes mainstream. Consolidation is only the beginning. Where do you start?
• Availability is a key business requirement. What are the benefits of the Database Availability Group (DAG)? What other steps can you take to fully-protect Exchange Server?

Eliminate Unplanned Exchange Server Downtime
No measure of Exchange performance is more important than availability. Exchange 2010 provides better native availability options than earlier versions, but DAG addresses mailbox database availability only. There’s much more to consider. A majority of the Exchange installed base are on 2003 which has even more limited availability features. Version upgrade presents the chance to improve Exchange Server availability. Why settle for usually available when you can achieve continuous, uninterrupted availability?

Upgrading to Exchange 2010? Now is the time to upgrade availability.

Already running Exchange 2010? Complement DAG with broader system protection.

Learn How By Attending,
“Microsoft Exchange Server: Predictions, Practicalities and Availability” Webinar

Register Today!

Hosted by Marathon Technologies
Only everRun MX with ComputeThru™ technology can ensure continuous availability of Exchange Server. Marathon Technologies enables Exchange pros to provide uninterrupted Exchange Server uptime by preventing downtime, not just reacting to it.

Seeing is Believing
Watch a live, on-camera demo of everRun® MX from Marathon Technologies, the only fault-tolerant software that unconditionallyensures Exchange Server availability. Watch as an Exchange Server pair protected by everRun MX experiences failure of component architecture elements, culminating with total disruption of power, but computes through without data corruption or a single lost transaction.