XOsoft's New Utility Puts Server Upgrades and Maintenance 'InMotion'

Exchange environments can be finicky, and a routine maintenance task often will run longer than expected, leaving administrators that have scheduled routine maintenance downtime, or planned downtime, in a predicament.

One recently released product solution providers may consider to help them prevent such mishaps is XOsoft&'s InMotion Manager 3.72. The utility is a replication and failover software product specifically designed to protect Microsoft Exchange environments from unplanned downtime. The software solution will help enterprise customers reduce complexity and the possibility of downtime surrounding migrations and maintenance of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003.

Installation of the software consists of a downloadable link and a company key, both of which have to be installed on Exchange Server and/or the new Exchange Server—if a permanent migration of Exchange 2000/2003 is applicable.

Using InMotion Manager 3.72, migration from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003, Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2000, and Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2003 is possible.

For testing purposes, CRN Test Center engineers facilitated an Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2000 hardware upgrade for their evaluation. Other options include permanent migration of individual Exchange 2000/2003 databases to another Exchange server. Administrators can either consolidate databases on a single Exchange server or redistribute databases to multiple Exchange servers, a very popular task in enterprise environments).

The software also allows for scheduled upgrades, during which administrators are able to move their Exchange 2000/2003 server to a temporary server. Administrators can perform hardware, operating system and Exchange version upgrades and reinstalls. In addition, they can move their Exchange server back to their original server once the maintenance upgrades are complete.

XOsoft&'s InMotion pricing is based on four license options: subscription, project, perpetual and evaluation. The pricing hierarchy is basically as follows: For a subscription license for 1,000 to 3,000 mailboxes, the software would cost $3 per mailbox, a project license would cost $5 per mailbox, and a perpetual license would cost $7 per mailbox. The project license is for a single server and allows the administrator to use the software to migrate Exchange mailboxes to another single server. The license is valid for a period of 90 days.The subscription license gives administrators the right to use the maintenance product on an unspecified number of servers, with a specified number of mailboxes for migration and maintenance on an annual basis. The perpetual license gives administrators the right to use the upgrade product on an unlimited number of servers with a specified number of mailboxes for migration and maintenance.

The evaluation license gives administrators of Exchange environments the right to use InMotion Manager 3.72 on an evaluation basis. It is valid for a period of seven days and grants the administrator the rights to use one server and to manage no more than 20 mailboxes during that evaluation period.

The pricing hierarchy is consistent with most per-seat or per-user licenses software products; as the number of users or mailboxes goes up, the price per user or mailbox goes down.

Solution providers that deal with Exchange environments know the importance of maintaining a healthiness within that environment. A misconception about Exchange environments is that most organizations have significantly more planned downtime than they do unplanned downtime. But XOsoft InMotion&'s objective is to reduce downtime in any form, no matter whether it is planned or unplanned.

Many companies do not have the luxury of having redundant server boxes. Therefore, third-party tools such as XOsoft make things a little more affordable for businesses.

Conducting any of the upgrade or maintenance tasks is somewhat complex and takes careful planning; however the entire process is automated and wizard-driven, which makes the job of the administrator much easier. XOsoft, Waltham, Mass., was established in 1999 and currently has 86 partners under contract. The privately held company consists of four types of business relationships, which is determined by several factors, including the type of business, resources assigned to the relationship and level of commitment to XOsoft.

The two levels applicable to the solution provider are Teaming partner and Premier VAR. A Teaming partner receives a 10 percent referral fee for introducing XOsoft to a business opportunity, while a Premier VAR will receive a 30 percent to 40 percent discount depending on the volume of the sale.

The company provides classroom training for technical and sales. It gives all of its partners access to a Web portal with XOsoft sales and support material, such as PowerPoint presentations, documentation, price lists and competitive comparisons.