Exchange Server Risk Assessment

The Microsoft Exchange Server Risk Assessment and Health Check is the first step for your organization to getting your Microsoft Exchange Server system working at peak capacity. This Assessment is designed to help you identify key areas of performance-level risk that may impact your organisation now and in the future.

The heart of this Health Check is an evaluation and assessment of your Exchange Server infrastructure and operational processes. The result of the program is an Exchange “Get Well” plan approved by you and implemented with assistance from your DSS Technical Account Manager (TAM). The entire process takes approximately three weeks and typically requires a one-day commitment from you for an onsite evaluation.

How the Assessment Works
Once you sign up for the Microsoft Exchange Server Risk Assessment and Health Check, a risk assessment resource is assigned and schedules your onsite evaluation. During the onsite evaluation, this person will run extensive diagnostics on your production systems and perform an operational interview with you and your Exchange Server staff. The activity on your systems is low impact, using read-only tools for evaluation.
The data collected from your production system is encrypted and securely sent back to DSS’s Exchange Server Center of Excellence for analysis.
The final risk assessment report is then delivered to you by your DSS TAM along with an initial plan for remediation.
With this information, you, your staff, and your DSS Account Team will be aware of the risks to your environment and possible solutions and additional offerings to mitigate that risk. Once you have reviewed the Exchange Server Risk Assessment and Health Check Report and the remediation plan, your TAM will work with your technical team to drive impactful change into your environment.

Three Phases of the Risk Assessment and Health Check Program

1. Data Collection

• A high-level architectural and operational interview will be conducted with your IT staff to help assess your operations and monitoring efficiencies. The questions will be sent to you in advance so you can gather the right resources for the interview.
• Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer (a read-only Exchange analysis tool), performance monitoring, and other read-only tools will be run in your production environment (Exchange, Active Directory, DNS, Networking, etc.) to collect detailed information about the current state of your environment.
  

2. Analysis

• The data collected in phase one will be analyzed by Microsoft’s Exchange Server Center of Excellence. An Exchange Server Risk Assessment and Health Check Report with areas for improvement will be produced and delivered to you by your Microsoft Account Team.

3. Remediation

• The areas for improvement will be approved by you and implemented with assistance from your DSS TAM to actively drive improvements into your Exchange Server environment. This may include such areas as design, operations, training, management, monitoring, and change control enhancements.
• Microsoft will also provide articles, white papers, and recommendations for further training and programs to help you understand and minimize your performance-level risk.
  

Help Maintain Maximum Efficiency
DSS' Microsoft Exchange Center of Excellence leverages our own IT organization’s knowledge, which allows DSS to run Exchange Server with a 99.99% uptime. By sharing our internal expertise through the Exchange Server Risk Assessment and Health Check, we hope to help you reach your ideal Exchange performance goals.

Help Reduce Support Costs
The Health Check helps expose vulnerabilities in your Exchange infrastructure and operational processes. When resolved, the result can be improved uptime and lower support costs. Diagnostics reveal causes, not just the symptoms, enabling you to take a proactive approach to reducing problems. This includes helping to identify problems to optimize productivity and uncovering potential efficiency issues before they affect users and drive up support costs.

Utilize Practical Recommendations
The Assessment provides possible solutions for each of the performance-level risks identified in order to assist you in running an enterprise-class Exchange messaging system. You will receive operations, configuration, and architectural recommendations aimed at improving the operational efficiency of your Exchange environment.

For more information on the Microsoft Exchange Server Risk Assessment and Health Check,  please email Consult@decision.ie