We have often heard the phrase “keep it simple” – on that theme, here is an interesting article here that discusses the complexity of current and imminent versions of Microsoft Exchange.

There is also an inference that virtualisation in itself (when deploying exchange) increases the complexity by adding not only an extra layer, but also the need for a SAN infrastructure. All good and valid points.

I would like to add the additional complexity associated with high availability and the need to keep those exchange services running. There is a clear benefit associated if you were to consider running these services on a fault tolerant server architecture. This will take the complexity (by providing uptime assurance) out of hosting Exchange either natively or on a virtualised platform.