For many bosses and administrators Microsoft Exchange Server is an absolute godsend. It is a way of enabling a level of security and control over a sphere - technological communications - which is notoriously intangible and elusive. How many of us have sent an inadvisable email or a message to the wrong person? How vital now are electronic communications in investigating internal disputes and in major legal suits? The immediate nature of sending an email can have repercussions for all of us whether we are acting out of the best intentions or not and in any type of organisation there needs to be a method of guarding against such potentially inflammatory communication.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 updates and expands the developments made in its previous 2007 incarnation to give administrators even greater peace of mind. One of the key features that it explores is that of legal retention of sent emails for the purposes of inquiry and other judicial proceedings. In the past it has been all too easy for a savvy user to eliminate any incriminating messages yet even if the emails are left preserved and archived there is often a time limit on them which can mean that they have long since disappeared by the time they are required. Exchange Server 2010's Legal Hold feature ensures that all such emails are permanently retained regardless of deletion by the user or the passing of any timeframes.

Email retention is put under the microscope in another way by allowing users to maintain two mailboxes, one for current communication and another for archiving. Whilst this allows the user's primary mailbox to remain clutter free there is the added bonus of being able to select the level and duration of retention on any given email.

An equally crucial development in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is the Multi Mailbox Search. This feature means that it is now possible for an administrator to perform multiple searches on multiple users' mailboxes. Various different keywords or phrases can be searched for at the same time thus cutting down on valuable time and resources as well as ensuring a more thorough and comprehensive search.

As well as these security measures to guard against human error or duplicity there are also features within Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that ensure that technical malfunctions are kept to a minimum. For example, in previous versions of Exchange Server database clustering meant that all databases stored on a single server would fail even if only one database had actually malfunctioned. Obviously this was infuriating for those users working on uncorrupted databases that would fail through no fault of their own. With Exchange Server 2010 that is no longer the case and working databases clustered with faulty ones are now no longer affected and caused to fail.

If you are an administrator looking to upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 it is well worth enrolling on a course so that you can fully understand the benefits that it can provide to securing your business from damaging communications.