Folks I am reveiwing two Exchange Implementation Submissions as part of much larger managed service implementations. One has suggested using OWA and one Outlook Anywhere. I come at this from a business technical perspective i.e. I understand the business benefits of email and Exchange, but not the nitty gritty of OWA and Outlook Anywhere, although I understand what they do. What is the view on the benefits of one over the other. When should one be used and not the other ? I'm particularly thinking from a security, cost, and usability view point ? At a more general level, should the setup include both for different scenarios ? Any thoughts? Thanks Jim

Take a look here for the feature benefits: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/featurecomparison.mspx Supporting OWA is simpler than Outlook Anywhere, which by definition includes mobile smartphones and Outlook client software. It can also be considered a cheaper solution since you don't have to purchase software for your users (assuming they have a computer with a web browser). As you'll find in the above link, the full Outlook software has a lot more features, and it also is going to generally have a faster response as the entire session isn't dependant on a website connection and browser rendering. Also there are some features, which some would argue are "business critical" that are only found when using the full Outlook program (via Outlook Anywhere), such as shared calendars and mailbox deligation. I could continue, but that should be a good start for you. Please post back with any specific questions. PS. the only feature that OWA has that Outlook anywhere doesn't include is the document sharing and WebReady Document viewing, which in my opinion is far from a mainstream demand.

Mike Thanks for the reply - very helpful. Forgive the silly question, but from what I read in your reply and in the link you sent, Outlook Anywhere is basically the client on a PC accessing the Exchange Servers using RPC over HTTP (as opposed to via a LAN). Is this correct ? Thanks Jim

"The Outlook Anywhere feature for MicrosoftExchangeServer2007lets your MicrosoftOfficeOutlook2007and Outlook2003 clients connect to their Exchange servers over the Internet by using the RPC over HTTP Windows networking component." http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9026d461-ec6a-4ef5-ba9d-de33030858f3.aspx ------------- So outlook anywhere is the marketing name for RPC over HTTPs, but it also now includes Smartphone connectivity. it doesn't mean the Outlook software itself, but that is required, unless you speak rpc.

Once again, thanks Mike. Jim

Glad I could help. Please mark the answer as "correct" if you have no further questions on this thread.