Manual vs. GOexchange^® Preventive Maintenance

Most IT departments simply don't have the time or resources to keep Exchange Servers maintained and running in optimum condition. It's complex, tedious work that takes more time and attention than most people have.

Using Microsoft tools, it is possible to create a manual Exchange server maintenance process yourself. However, keep in mind that this requires in-depth study of the MS tools and exhaustive testing. More importantly, when manually executed the maintenance process is often incomplete and/or executed improperly, which can cause data destruction with devastating results that cut across the entire organization.

With GOexchange®, you can rest assured your Exchange servers will receive the best preventive maintenance available, automatically. By implementing GOexchange® Preventive Maintenance, you'll capitalize on built-in expert knowledge and proven processes for consistent, flawless maintenance while saving your IT team the cost of expensive manual trial and error.

NOTE: Data in the chart below was derived from a Lucid8 report on best practices in Exchange server maintenance and management.

Requirements	Microsoft supplied tools	Time to accomplish	GOexchange® for Microsoft Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003 and 2007	Time to accomplish
Expert Knowledge	Requires Exchange Administrator to obtain in-depth/expert knowledge of the MS Tools.	90+ Hours	Expert Knowledge built-in.	0
Creation of Manual Process	Once the tools are understood, a process to run the tools must be created.	60+ hours	Expert Process is built in, however, you will invest some set-up time for GOexchange®.	20 Minutes
Make sure you have the right commands and parameters	This is a critical process. One mistake and you can wave bye bye to all your e-mail.	Maybe you should double the time spent on research above and check your process on a test server?	Expert Process is built in. Thousands, upon thousands of hours have been spent creating, testing and perfecting the GOexchange® processes in order to obtain flawless execution every time.	0
Mode of Operation	Manual only. Maintenance must be performed locally one server at a time.	See Below	Manual or Automatic: Kick off or Schedule multiple maintenance processes on one or more Exchange Servers, and even in multiple locations at once.	See Below
Execute the Process	• Start a tape backup job • Wait for result • Document • Begin Stage 1 • Wait for result • Interpret result • Document • Begin Stage 2 • Wait for result • Interpret result • Document • Begin Stage 3 • Wait for result • Interpret result • Document • Continue until complete...	Depending on the database size, this process done manually can take anywhere from 8 to 72 hours per server.	100% Automatic.	0
Knowledge Update	The tools supplied by Microsoft for Exchange are different for every version and will continually change as service packs and new versions are released.	24 hours a year minimum.	Our experts continually work with Exchange to improve the abilities of GOexchange. Purchase a Support and Maintenance Program and receive all major product updates for the term of the agreement.	0
Re-Learn Expert Knowledge	Expert Knowledge is held by an individual. Therefore, if this person ever leaves, you must start over.	Start Over	Knowledge and process is built in to GOexchange® so there is never a need to relearn.	0