TABLE OF CONTENTS If you had my bias on this subject, your initial reaction to citing hardware problems with your Exchange server as a leading cause of downtime would be to lament that the problem is not your hardware, but how you are using it or the vendor you have selected. The truth is, the leading causes of downtime just don t make a huge case for hardware as a big problem when it comes to building mission critical servers. The three-legged stool here is people, process, and technology, and when it comes to downtime, it isn t technology that should be your biggest area of concern. While this is arguable, the reality is that availability is about the weakest link in the chain. If the server and storage technologies you leverage are your weakest links, you had better put some thought into building Exchange servers utilizing the best hardware technologies you can afford. I won t further argue the merits of focusing on hardware technologies to build more mission-critical Exchange deployments. This chapter assumes that hardware may be your most critical area for investment and a likely leading cause of downtime. With that in mind, I will try to focus on the key server and storage technologies available, how they impact Exchange deployments, and how you can leverage them to build mission-critical Exchange servers. In addition, if you select the right hardware, hardware should not end up being a significant cause of downtime. This being the goal, we...
