When compared to the 2007 and 2010 versions of Microsoft Exchange, the 2013 edition had a few new features that proved to be extremely beneficial to various users. Regardless of the useful server improvements, the overall 2013 Exchange Server rate of use is lower than expected. In fact, based on a 2012 TechTarget’s Windows Server buying trend report, only 5% of the surveyed participants have made the switch to the new Exchange Server 2013, with 50% of the respondents saying that they intend on remaining with their current 2010 version of Exchange. Even though certain upgrades have been made in 2013, there are still a few important issues that have been associated with the new Exchange Server.
Quality Issues
Since being released late in 2013, Microsoft Exchange critics have been very opinionated about the lack of quality in the new server program. Even though two separate updates have been released, neither one of them were able to completely fix the problem or produce a higher quality server. Making matters worse, the second of the two released updates had to eventually be recalled after a crippling bug was found once it was distributed to the public. In order to properly fix the situation, Microsoft said that their operations would be dedicated to fixing the 2013 Exchange Server quality by continually providing useful, tested updates.
Technical Restraints
Incredibly, there are still certain organizations that are operating on the 2003 version of Exchange. Because of this, migrating to Exchange 2013 is extremely difficult for a lot of different businesses. To accomplish this type of server transformation, a company would need to perform a double migration, which proves to be very expensive and time consuming. In some cases, many of these organizations will actually be operating on Exchange 2007 or 2010 while still using Outlook 2003. Generally, this occurs due to various legacy applications that have not been reprogrammed for more recent versions of Outlook.
Lack of Added Value
Another common reason for the delayed migration to Exchange 2013 is because of its lack of value as it relates to the 2010 version. While this isn’t necessarily due to the technical aspect of Exchange 2013, there have been many complaints regarding the server’s cost, productivity abilities, and end user capabilities. Unless there is a consolidated user interface across various devices that is absolutely required, the minimal improvements that were made to Outlook 2013 and Exchange 2013 make it hard to justify a server upgrade. On top of that, many businesses have just recently migrated to Exchange 2010, which makes the transfer to the 2013 version nearly impossible.
