A lot of admins are frustrated about the fact that Microsoft requires Exchange on-premises to manage a hybrid environment.
Getting rid of Exchange on-premises is one of the main drivers to migrate email to Office 365.
Naturally, it’s disappointing that you must continue to maintain Exchange on-premises to manage email attributes.
Additionally, Exchange on-premises has proven to be a popular target for hackers:
In 2021 we saw Hafnium, which affected hundreds of thousands of companies, as well as CVE-2021-42321. Nobody knows what 2022 will bring.
How to Completely Remove Exchange On-Premises
Easy365Manager is a simple administration tool that extends Active Directory Users & Computers with new functionality.
With Easy365Manager you can easily manage email attributes, Office 365 licenses, and Exchange Online mailboxes:
Easy365Manager even lets you manage settings only exposed via PowerShell, like calendar delegation and Azure AD Connect one-click-synchronization.
You can view Easy365Manager features here and download a fully-functional 30-day trial here.
How to Download Exchange On-Premises For Free
If you decide to carry the cost and risk of running Exchange on-premises, Microsoft provides the media for free here.
Although the installation media and the Exchange license are free, you still need to consider other direct and indirect expenditures:
- Power to run the Exchange on-premises server
- The operating system license
- Potential license costs to 3rd party AV, backup, and monitoring software
- Time spent on patch management, monitoring, and maintenance
- Potential time and money lost in case your on-premises Exchange gets compromised
Eliminating the above expenses makes Easy365Manager an easy choice for many admins.
Exchange On-Premises Hardware Requirements
The Exchange minimum requirements are listed here.
Basically, you need:
- A well-performing 64-bit CPU
- 4 GB of RAM
- No less than 100 GB disk to ensure you can safely carry the OS + Exchange
Be aware that 4 GB of RAM is a bare minimum, giving you very mediocre performance when running the Exchange Admin Center.
Also, you must keep in mind that if the Exchange Server is down or has failures, you will not be able to manage email attributes and provision new user accounts with mailboxes.
In comparison, Easy365Manager is a simple snap-in that you can install to any PC or management server with AD Users & Computers installed.
Easy365Manager includes unlimited installations and admin users for a flat rate yearly license.
Do More With Less
Even though Easy365Manager is just a simple .dll extension to AD Users & Computers, it will provide you with more power than you find in Exchange on-premises.
Easy365Manager covers all the daily admin tasks for which you normally need Exchange on-premises.
Additionally, Easy365Manager gives you intuitive GUI access to configurations that normally require complex PowerShell scripting.
One example is the easy configuration of calendar delegation:
To try out Easy365Manager in your environment download the free 30-day trial.
The installation is very simple and can be done in less than one minute.
Easy365Manager does not make any changes to your AD or infrastructure and can be easily removed at any point in time.
The 30-day fully-functional trial is available here.