Is there a future for partner Hosted Exchange?
A new version of Exchange Server was scheduled for release in 2021, that never materialized as patching Exchange security issues took precedence. So what happened to the next Exchange version?
Just last week – out of the blue, an Exchange Server (or on-premises) roadmap announcement was made. For Exchange hosters, there is still an expectation to move to Exchange Online and an ongoing question mark over the future of Exchange Server. Although many uncertainties remain, this announcement shows that Exchange Server continues to have a planned life.
The key message being: “Microsoft are committed to supporting partners and customers who have reason to run Exchange Server.”
There is a planned future and there will continue to be one while there is “substantive market demand”. Reading between the lines, we could assume that there is still demand and associated spending from organizations that want to operate their own Exchange infrastructure.
Current Exchange Versions
Quick recap on current supported Exchange versions – and their associated support expiry:
- Exchange Server 2013 : In Extended support until 11-Apr-23
- Exchange Server 2016 : In Extended support until 14-Oct-25
- Exchange Server 2019 : In Mainstream support until 9-Jan-24, then Extended Support until 14-Oct-25
Exchange Server vNext is now slated for launch in 2025!! It will be the first Exchange Server version to move under Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy. This differs from previous Exchange versions which have all had a fixed and predictable support life.
This does imply that there could be a gap where there is no version of Exchange that is supported, but I assume that this would be resolved through extending 2019 support or releasing the vNext version before it expires.
This means that Exchange will be continuously receive updates and in theory there will not be another major release. This is similar to how businesses experience Exchange Online – updates and improvements are rolled out, however they don’t have major projects, hardware investments, weeks of planning and months of execution for each update. It would seem that Exchange Server might get to receive some of the learnings from Exchange Online.
Planning your upgrade to Exchange vNext
There will be an upgrade path from Exchange Server 2019 – not sure what this looks like, but for those who have recently upgraded to Exchange 2019, you have a bit of breathing space before needing to start on the final “ascent” of what could be your last ever Exchange upgrade project!
What will happen to Exchange 2019?
Exchange 2019 is going to have to run a long stint, by the time vNext is here it may have been in service for 7 years. Exchange 2019 will continue to get updates and although it’s not a new version by label – does this really make any difference? The potentially largest difference of Exchange vNext is that the support policy will change dramatically and it might get a name without a year in it.
Advice for any Exchange hosters or companies who are not yet on 2019 – it’s probably worth getting the upgrade to Exchange Server 2019 done, there likely wont be an easy path to vNext from any other version. In addition, there are improvements which make the product more competitive against Exchange online. Read on for the planned improvements coming to 2019 over the next year or two.
Investments planned for Exchange 2019
The Microsoft announcement went into planned investments into Exchange Server 2019 in between now and the release of Exchange Server vNext.
Improved Security, Deployment, Management capability, reliability – that’s what people are asking for…
Exchange 2019 Security Improvements
Modern Authentication Update
Modern Authentication is Microsoft’s OAuth 2.0 implementation which provides an improved authentication mechanism over the basic authentication that has existed in Exchange for many years. In Exchange Server 2019 Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA) is currently supported, but has a dependency on Azure AD for its implementation.
For many organisations that have decided to continue with Exchange on-premises, it is simply not an option for them. Microsoft have reversed a previous announcement which said that they would only ever support HMA in a hybrid configuration.
This means that Modern Authentication will become available in Exchange 2019 and will have no dependency on Azure AD/Cloud. This is a pretty big change for Microsoft.
Support for TLS1.3
TLS1.3 is the standard on Windows Server 2022 – Exchange 2019 doesn’t fully support but will apparently next year.
Update Dashboard
Microsoft 365 admin center will introduce features to show current update state of Hybrid Exchange servers. It will show what needs updates, and servers that are out of support.
Something similar will also appear for Exchange Server 2019 next year. The Future of Exchange definitely has dashboards in it!
Deployment and Management Enhancements
Customizations made to config files currently get overwritten with CU updates. Setup process is being changed to preserve customizations made to such files.
Hybrid Configuration Preservation
More flexibility is being introduced to this wizard.
Opinion on the future of Exchange
Microsoft may have lost a little faith from Exchange administrators with the continued push to Exchange Online. Some of the responses to this article sure view the Future of Exchange with a level of skepticism.
I think Microsoft still has a large market for Exchange and there will continue to be scenarios related to security, policy or trust, that require IT infrastructure to be maintained outside of the public cloud. I think this announcement means that Exchange server will probably continue at least until the end of this decade, at which time who knows – we may have also moved on a bit from email as a primary form of business communication.
I think for Exchange hosters who license through SPLA, it is less clear what changes are ahead –I think it could be likely that SPLA is merged into Microsoft CSP and maybe this will happen before Exchange vNext is announced.
Atria and Exchange
Atria has provided multi-tenancy, automation and self-service for Exchange since Exchange 2000 – Atria today works with Exchange 2013, 2016 and 2019. whether you are Exchange hosting or selling Microsoft Online, we can help you improve operations across Private and multi-tenant configurations. As for the Future of Exchange, we will absolutely have support for it if there is demand from our customers.
