Hosted Exchange 2010 has a brand-new Service Pack 2. And true to our promise to always offer customers the latest, most advanced cloud technologies and solutions so they can consistently increase productivity and outperform the competition, SherWeb has been among the first hosting providers to release it.

Among other changes, Exchange SP2 improves and simplifies the management of address books for end-users.

More specifically, Exchange SP2 includes a number of new customer-requested features such as the new address book policies (ABPs). These policies are designed to simplify global address list (GAL) segmentation and management.

What does that mean for SherWeb’s Hosted Exchange users? Better mobility, flexibility and compliance. One specific change you’ll immediately notice is that loading global lists will now be much faster.

The SherWeb team thoroughly tested SP2 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 prior to launch to ensure a seamless and safe transition with no service disruption for end-users.

Here we talk a bit more about these new ABPs and how they will enhance your Hosted Exchange email experience.

Easier GAL segmentation

Global address list (GAL) segmentation (a.k.a. GAL segregation) is the process administrators use to segment users into specific groups. This segmentation allows for customized views of their organization’s GAL, which can be especially useful in a number of scenarios.

While Exchange Server 2007 and earlier versions made segmenting the GAL quite complicated, Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 simplifies the process by introducing address book policies (ABPs). This new feature will be especially appreciated by on-premise organizations that need multiple GALs.

With SP2, every time you create an ABP, you assign the following to it:
- 1 GAL
- 1 offline address book (OAB)
- 1 room list
- 1 or more address lists

When you assign the ABP to mailbox users, you give them access to a customized GAL in Outlook and Outlook Web App.

Microsoft’s TechNet site explains the new Address Book Policies in detail and offers a few possible scenarios for creating ABPs.

We’ve summarized two ABP scenarios that are most likely to be relevant to SherWeb customers here.

2 Common ABP Scenarios

1. Companies with separate divisions, agencies or departments that share the same Exchange organization but that do not share employees or a common reporting chain.

Number of ABPs to be created: 2
Settings:
- Employees viewing the GAL or distribution group membership only see recipients within their division, agency or department.
- No distribution group spans both companies.

2. Companies that have a shared Exchange organization and the same CEO, but separate employees.

Number of ABPs to be created: 3
Settings:
- Employees viewing the GAL or distribution group membership only see recipients within their company.
- Each company has its own distribution group (SeniorLeaders). This group includes the shared CEO and that company’s senior leaders only.
- Employees viewing the CEO’s group membership only see groups within their company.

To learn more, you can visit TechNet’s Understanding Address Book Policies for details on:

• How ABPs work
• Deploying ABPs
• Considerations and Best Practices
• Deployment Scenarios
• General Deployment Steps
• Migrating from Address List Segmentation to ABPs
• New Deployment of ABPs and detailed information on each of the 4 related steps

You can also visit TechNet’s Exchange 2010 General SP2 page for global overview of all the new features included in the updated service pack. This information can be useful for those who are planning, deploying and administering their organization.

The global service pack 2 page also highlights the changes that have been made to Exchange 2010 since Service Pack 1 (SP1) was launched:

• Hybrid Configuration Wizard
• Federated Delegation
• Address Book Policies
• Cross-Site Silent Redirection for Outlook Web App
• Mini Version of Outlook Web App
• Mailbox Replication Service
• Mailbox Auto-Mapping
• Multi-Valued Custom Attributes
• Litigation Hold
• Multi-Tenant Support

Do you think SP2 improves Hosted Exchange? Tell us what you think.