Assessing Your Needs and Resources

Careful planning of your organization's messaging needs is very important. If your organization is small or you have only a few servers, planning your Microsoft Exchange Server rollout is relatively simple.

The most effective way to plan your system is to use a "top down" approach, starting with the organization. To begin planning, design a prototype topology. Then validate and optimize that design until it meets your requirements.

To validate your design, consider projected server load and client response times. To optimize the design, consider several topology options and identify their costs and benefits. Each option can include a brief overview of the topology plan, network maps showing the data path, and routing diagrams. Finally, analyze, review, and test each option. Revise your plans as necessary to maximize performance, reliability, and service to users.

After the design meets your organization's requirements, determine how to set up Microsoft Exchange Server. Your plan should outline the procedures for installing the new system in your organization. Finally, roll out your plan in phases until all users are on the new system.