The most often used features of exchange servers are :
- E-Mails
- Appointments and calendars
- Tasks
- Contacts and addresses
- Notes
- Documents
All of the above mentioned elements are stored on a central server and are made available to a user-defined number of operators. Therefore the information is always without any redundancies and completely up to date.
The benefit of this architecture is obvious.
Let’s assume, that you have a support department in your company and use an Exchange based inbox for the contact address support@yourcompany.com. Now all of your associates can see which E-Mails have already been answered, what cases still wait for a reply, and can even see the proposal for solutions that have been made.
But the working day has changed a lot in the past years. It may be that projects are realized at the customer’s location, companies use more and more outsourcing or that companies have structures reaching around the entire world.
Security: Encryption with VPN
Users from outside the company network can offer their knowledge and participate through the so called VPN (Virtual Private Network). This ensures that the participants of projects always are provided with the most accurate and up to date information.
Using the online mode, you work within the infrastructure of your company and adjust information in real time within your system. If the connection to the company network is disabled, you just turn your exchange server into the offline mode. This creates a copy of your inbox, which in turn allows you to still have fast access to your data.
This copy of your inbox is regularly updated by the mail server when you are online. Once the connection is enabled again, Microsoft Outlook will switch back into the online mode. Changes made by you while there was no connection to the server are automatically adjusted as soon as the connection is enabled again. Of course, the synchronization of the worldwide data is a challenge for the exchange server. For example, if an operator uses a cell phone and has an UMTS connection, an adjustment of such large files would take way to long.
In order to combat this, Microsoft uses the so called “cached mode”, available since Exchange Server 2003. In cached mode, the exchange application possesses an automatic online/offline-management, which runs in the background. This equilibrates the encumbrance of the connection to the exchange server because some of the contents aren’t aligned despite the connection to the exchange server is established.
The Lookeen Search Solution
Users on forums and product review sites that deal with search tools often complain about the fact that most tools aren’t able to search and index all Exchange inboxes in all modes. Lookeen was developed especially for this case, and for a professional environment in general. We at Axonic Informationssysteme GmbH are aware of this fact and therefore the base principle of development for Lookeen is the compatibility to Exchange Servers.
After the release of Lookeen, the feedback has been thoroughly positive and a huge amount of encouragement was given to us. All involved in this dialogue profited of it. Companies used the smooth support of Exchange Servers as the reason for choosing Lookeen over other search tools.
Archives or inboxes that are on the Exchange Servers are simply added to the Lookeen index from Lookeen options, and because of the Lookeen Group Policies, outlined in this article about safe enterprise search, all particulars of the handling of the Exchange Servers and their clients can be individually configured.
Lookeen supports the Exchange Server indication in all modes, no matter if you are online or offline, if you are using the cached or the uncached mode. With Lookeen you search through all of your data in a few seconds, even on your Exchange Servers.
Learn more about how the Lookeen Enterprise Search client in combination with the Lookeen Server can simplify your enterprise search system.
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