So many of you are pondering whether to make the jump to Exchange 2007 and all it entails, like the fact that there is no upgrade path since it requires a 64 bit server. You are weighing the pros and cons, deciding whether it’s worth precious budget dollars or trying to justify it to upper management. We already mentioned that the new Outlook Web Access (OWA) is one in Exchange 2007’s favor, but here are a few more if you are looking for justifications, or even rationalizations.

Replication and Disaster Recovery. Exchange 2007 allows the duplication of information stores for offsite clustered servers making replication and disaster recovery easier. Also, users can have mailbox functionality while database recovery is occurring, getting people back to work faster.

Different roles in a clustered environment. Different servers in an Exchange 2007 cluster can take on various roles, such as one sitting in the DMZ as an Edge Transport Server. Other roles include Mailbox, Hub Transport, Client Access and …

Unified Messaging. Integration with your VOIP system to allow voice mails to be stored in mailboxes and the ability to listen to e-mail messages on a mobile phone.

We will be featuring more useful features that make the upgrade worthwhile in upcoming blog posts. A full list of the new features in Exchange 2007 and other propaganda is available on Microsoft’s Exchange 2007 evaluation site.