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If you’re reading this, you might have been linked to it from an e-mail you received from TMC (News - Alert). And going by the statistics which I’m completely guessing, I’d say about a third of you are using the robust email hosting solution Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange to view those e-mails. If the number is more than that, I wouldn’t be surprised, since Exchange has done well over the years, adapting and improving to maintain itself as a viable and useful tool.

When Exchange 2003 was first introduced, it was rather expensive, and certainly not the most convenient way to check one’s e-mail. It wasn’t until Google (News - Alert) introduced Gmail, a far more affordable, convenient and improved system, that Microsoft had to up its game. But up it they did, first with Exchange 2007, which was a step in the right direction, then with Exchange 2010, which provided better availability, improved features and was generally better than its previous versions.

Now, while Gmail continues to be one of the most commonly used e-mail hosting services around, Exchange has proven to be committed to the space for the long term. With the upcoming release of Exchange 2013, we will see what improvements the company can offer. It claims to have a 99 percent reduction in I/O in production environments as well as is part of Microsoft’s engineering’s focus of moving from on-premises enterprise deployments to the cloud.

Of course, there are many benefits to email hosting through Exchange. It offers built in anti-virus and spam filters in addition to the ability to sync to various devices. In a business world that’s becoming more mobile, that’s a feature that can’t be overlooked.

It’s been a long road for Microsoft Exchange, and definitely not a smooth one. There was a lot of competition along the way, and it had to make a lot of changes to keep up with them. Still, it hasn’t lasted ten years for nothing, and only time will tell where it is headed next.