With the release of Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft is promising the same list of things for those who upgrade; lowering IT costs, anywhere access to communication, managing risk and ensuring compliance. From what I can remember about Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003, these were the same benefits for upgrading in their respective generations. So how do the new features make Exchange Server 2010 better? I’ll be exploring the system in depth over the next few months.

However, before we get into that, allow me to direct your attention to a nice cost saving calculator posted on the Exchange Server 2010 web site, http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/Exchange-Calculator.aspx. The calculator requires Silverlight 3, so install that if you haven’t already.

The calculator allows you to figure out the estimated cost savings from upgrading from either Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange Server 2007. Using the default figures, it estimates a savings of $394 per user when upgrading from Exchange 2003 and $348 per user when upgrading from Exchange 2007.

Next, you can enter the number of e-mail users in your organization (1500), the average burdened salary per employee ($75K), number of data centers (2), add-on services used (voice mail, mobility, backup, archiving), current e-mail availability (99%), and how many minutes the users save per day with anytime/anywhere access to e-mail and voice mail (10 minutes).

With these numbers, the calculator estimates annual savings for the organization upgrading from Exchange Server 2007 at $353,418. Running the same numbers for an organization upgrading from Exchange Server 2003, the savings are $437,592 annually.