<p>Along with Windows XP, life support is running out for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. If your business is still running this 11-year-old mail, contact and calendar server, prepare to face a black hole when it comes to future problems.</p><p>With many businesses already using one of the server's three future generations and with alternatives like Zimbra, Novell GroupWise and others what will laggards pick when they finally move on? Cloud-based office solutions are just one appealing option. Exchange Options</p><p>MIcrosoft's support for its retiring mail server product, Exchange 2003, ends on 8 April along with support for Windows XP. While fewer people use Exchange 2003 than Windows XP, it will still create problems for an estimated 6.3 million users in small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in North America, leaving them open to future security issues and the loss of modern features of current-generation products.</p><p>While big business is well drilled in the art of upgrading, thanks to volume licensing, Microsoft is less pushy with its SMB clients, making it easier for them to be left behind. Any decision rests largely on the individual company, which needs to look at its current and future requirements as well as cost and accessibility. Just one natural path for these lagging users would be to upgrade to a later version of Exchange, with 2010 and 2013 the most likely options.</p><p><a href="http://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/another-one-bites-the-dust-rip-microsoft-exchange-server-2003-023869.php">Keep reading...</a></p>