Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Interoperability Overview

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user.  Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document.  Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.©2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Active Directory, Entourage, Microsoft Exchange, the Microsoft logo, Outlook, SharePoint, and Windows are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Page 2

ContentsIntroduction.............................................................................................................................4The Microsoft Approach to Interoperability..............................................................................4Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Encouraging Openness.......................................................4Part I: Common Interoperability Scenarios..............................................................................5

Mobility Interoperability.......................................................................................................5Web Services and APIs.....................................................................................................5Supported Protocols.........................................................................................................5

Voice Interoperability...........................................................................................................5Web Services and APIs.....................................................................................................6Supported Protocols.........................................................................................................6

Messaging Interoperability...................................................................................................7Supported Protocols.........................................................................................................7

Client Interoperability..........................................................................................................7Web Services and APIs.....................................................................................................8Supported Protocols.........................................................................................................8

Storage Interoperability.......................................................................................................8Antivirus Interoperability.....................................................................................................8

Web Services and APIs.....................................................................................................9Archiving/Compliance Tool Interoperability..........................................................................9

Third-Party Archiving and Compliance Solutions for Exchange Server 2007....................9Part II: Other Interoperability Aspects....................................................................................10

Data Portability..................................................................................................................10Industry-Standard Formats.............................................................................................10

Open Engagement.............................................................................................................11Interoperability Forum....................................................................................................11Open Source Interoperability Initiative...........................................................................11

Conclusion.............................................................................................................................12Notes and References...........................................................................................................13

Page 3

IntroductionMost organizations today use products and technologies from multiple vendors, creating heterogeneous computing environments. This approach can make it difficult to maximize the return on your IT investments while also realizing the value of new technologies. Technology interoperability—the ability to communicate and exchange data using technologies from different vendors—is an important factor to consider as you look for ways that IT can contribute more to your business. Microsoft approaches interoperability holistically through product development, community engagement, technology access, Web services, APIs, and open standards. As a result, most Microsoft products are designed in accordance with the principles of open connections, support for industry standards, and data portability. This method helps to ensure the continued appeal of Microsoft products to developers and end users alike. To further its approach, Microsoft has also formed the following groups:

Interoperability Executive Customer (IEC) Council : A group working toward identifying areas for interoperability improvements across products and the software industry overall.

Interoperability Vendor Alliance (IVA) : A community of software and hardware vendors whose goal is to improve interoperability with Microsoft products and systems.

Document Interoperability Initiative : An initiative used to test, identify, and discuss the interoperability of various products to support data and document portability.

The Microsoft Approach to InteroperabilityMicrosoft has worked with customers, partners, competitors, governments, and standards organizations to build interoperable technologies, and has created interoperable products that are also among the best available. As a result, technologies like XML and Web services (among others) have emerged as industry standards.Today, customers and partners expect the products they use to provide out-of-the-box connectivity with other vendors’ products. The Microsoft approach to developing interoperable products helps build solutions that can easily connect to legacy systems, leveraging existing IT investments. Microsoft also plays a vital role in several international standards bodies, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), with the mission of defining standards in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Encouraging OpennessMicrosoft Exchange Server 2007 has been designed and developed with interoperability in mind and includes support for a wide range of open protocols, Web services, APIs, standards, and protocol documentation. Using these open protocols, Web services, and APIs, system integrators and developers can build enterprise line-of-business (LOB) applications and custom applications that interoperate with Exchange Server 2007.This paper discusses Exchange Server interoperability in two parts:

Part I: Common Interoperability Scenarios describes Exchange Server interoperability using a scenario approach and presents the protocols, Web services, and APIs implemented by Exchange Server 2007.

Part II: Other Interoperability Aspects describes some other important interoperability aspects including data portability, industry-standard formats, and open engagement initiatives for Exchange Server 2007.

Page 4

Part I: Common Interoperability Scenarios Exchange Server 2007 implements open protocols such as IMAP4, POP3, and SMTP to interoperate with Microsoft products like the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server, and Microsoft Office Communications Server, and with non-Microsoft products like Lotus Notes/Domino and Cisco Unity.In order to promote further interoperability, Exchange Server 2007 enables the use of Web services, APIs, and protocols in mobility, voice, messaging, client, storage, antivirus, and archiving and compliance scenarios.

Mobility InteroperabilityCorporate e-mail users not only want access to their inboxes from anywhere, but they also need to be able to conduct business from any location, whenever it is required. Adopting such a work culture sometimes requires organizations to have their employees use different types of mobile devices, such as PDAs, laptops, and palmtops. This variety of devices requires an interoperable infrastructure that can support end users’ needs, regardless of the device they use. Exchange Server 2007 supports a set of protocols, Web services, and APIs to interoperate with a broad range of mobile devices. Organizations with Exchange Server 2007 are more capable of providing their corporate users with full access to their e-mails, calendars, and contacts from the most convenient client application or device. This messaging server can also reduce an organization’s dependency on third-party messaging tools. The Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) technology of Exchange Server 2007 has been licensed to companies like Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola, Nokia, Symbian, Palm, DataViz, and others. Users can access most of the mobility features of Exchange Server 2007 using these non-Microsoft products. The following sections describe how Exchange Server 2007 provides interoperability in mobility scenarios by supporting Web services, APIs, and protocols.Web Services and APIsWeb services and APIs provide system integrators and developers with a mechanism to create applications for developing custom integrated solutions. Exchange Server 2007 implements a set of APIs and Exchange Web Services to enable remote access to mailboxes. For example, an application that runs on a computer connected to an intranet may need to access information on an Exchange Server that is behind a firewall in an external location. With Exchange Web Services, the API used to access information in Exchange Server is no longer limited by boundaries; client applications can access Exchange Server from virtually any location that has network access via HTTP. For more details about Exchange Web Services, see Introduction to Exchange Web Services in Exchange 2007.Supported ProtocolsExchange Server 2007 supports interoperability with Microsoft and non-Microsoft products through standards-based protocols and data formats. Developers can use EAS protocol to represent and transfer data to and from EAS-enabled mobile devices. They can also use the EAS protocol in their own programs to support the exchange of contact, calendar, and inbox data between mobile devices and a mailbox hosted on Exchange Server.For more detailed technical specifications about these protocols and their relationships to other protocols, requirements, message syntax, and attributes, please refer to Exchange Server Protocol Documents.

Voice InteroperabilityIntegrating voice mail with e-mail and calendaring systems offers some valuable benefits, including reduced costs, improved productivity, and greater ease of use. The Exchange Server 2007 Unified

Page 5

Messaging feature can help deliver these benefits by unifying voice mail and fax traffic with other data items in users' existing inboxes, and then making all of these data items available to users within a single inbox.Exchange Server 2007 enables information workers to access their voice, fax, and e-mail data from a single inbox from wherever they are using their desktop computer or mobile device. They can also place a voice call using a regular telephone and manage their e-mail, calendar, and personal contacts. This section takes a look at the protocols and APIs used by Exchange Server 2007 to help enable interoperability with applications and devices in the area of voice communications.Web Services and APIsThird-party applications can interoperate with Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging functionalities by using the Unified Messaging Web service. The Unified Messaging Web service allows developers to read and change information about Unified Messaging properties. For example, to access an e-mail or voice mail over phone, a developer can use the PlayOnPhone Operation XML request. Similarly, developers and system integrators can use operations and elements of UM Web services including Disconnect Operation, PlayonPhoneGreeting Operation, and Unified Messaging Web Services XML elements to integrate voice capabilities in their applications.For more technical reference on the Unified Messaging Web service, visit Unified Messaging Web Service Reference .Supported ProtocolsExchange Server 2007 uses an SIP/PSTN Gateway, IP-PBX, or SIP trunking service for communication with the PSTN. Microsoft promotes the Microsoft Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program to test the interoperability of Exchange Server with SIP/PSTN Gateways and IP-PBXs. To see the supported IP gateways for unified messaging, and to determine if the PBX is supported using a specific IP gateway model or manufacturer, or if the IP-PBX is supported using a direct SIP connection, refer to Telephony Advisor for Exchange Server 2007.Exchange Server 2007 supports the following industry-standard protocols to interoperate with telephony systems:

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)Initiate and handle sessions involving multimedia elements like video, voice, IM, virtual reality, and animation. SIP is one of the main protocols used for VoIP and is used only for setting up and tearing down video and voice calls. This protocol helps clients like IP gateways or IP-PBXs to interoperate with Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging via SIP servers.

Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) defines a packet format that is used to carry voice and video data over a network. It is used extensively in communications and entertainment systems. It helps stream media like telephony, Web-based push-to-talk, and video teleconferencing. In coordination with SIP, Exchange Server 2007 interoperates with IP gateways by using the RTP protocol to transfer the live voice traffic.

For more information on the protocols, port assignments and services of Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, visit Understanding Protocols, Ports, and Services in Unified Messaging.

Page 6

Messaging InteroperabilityAn organization using multiple messaging systems—such as Exchange Server 2007 and a Lotus Domino/Notes system—needs to ensure that those systems can communicate with each other. This interoperability should include capabilities such as bi-directional message flow (including message requests), bi-directional directory synchronization, and bi-directional free/busy lookup, enabling users to efficiently send and receive messaging and calendaring data across the system. Exchange Server 2007 uses the Microsoft Transporter for Lotus Domino tool to interoperate with Lotus Domino. This tool helps to configure directory synchronization (using the Directory Connector tool) and free/busy lookups (using the Free/Busy Connector) between Exchange Server 2007 and Lotus Domino.Exchange Server 2007 also supports the iCalendar specification (RFC 2445) to enable users to send meeting requests to other users who use different calendaring systems. The iCalendar specification defines the format of calendar information that is sent between different calendar user agents. Exchange Server 2007 automatically converts calendar information to the correct format for client programs.Supported ProtocolsExchange Server 2007 does not require any information about the environment in which the client is running, and it can interact with any client capable of processing XML, thereby offering an advantage to organizations using heterogeneous environments.

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Using SOAP messages, Exchange Server 2007 communicates with computer and Web service client applications. The Exchange Web services implement SOAP to provide information on data, its versioning and the operation to be performed on that data, to the messaging client application.

XML protocol This protocol provides a standard messaging format that makes it possible to exchange information between client applications and Exchange Server 2007.

T.38 Fax ProtocolIP-enabled fax devices, fax gateways, or computers with fax software installed interoperate with Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging using the T.38 Fax Protocol. This protocol enables fax service over an IP network and uses SMTP and MIME protocols to deliver fax messages to recipients’ Exchange mailboxes.

Client InteroperabilityFacilitating interoperability between different messaging technologies involves enabling the messaging servers to support different messaging clients and effectively communicate with other messaging servers. Exchange Server 2007 supports multiple clients across various platforms such as Lotus Notes, Novell Evolution, Microsoft Entourage® for Mac, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Office Outlook®, and others. Exchange Server mailboxes can also be accessed through a Web browser, using Office Outlook Web Access. Exchange Server helps to enable interoperability with different messaging clients by supporting a variety of Web services, APIs, and protocols.

Page 7

Web Services and APIs Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI)

MAPI provides access to items and folders within public and private databases, as well as the properties stored along with each item. Developers can create clients that use MAPI and can interoperate with Exchange Server 2007. For more technical details on MAPI, visit MAPI Evaluation Criteria.

Entourage for MacEntourage client software for Mac uses Exchange Web Services functionality to support free/busy, Out of Office Assistant, delegation, and Autodiscover services. Synchronization of folders, items, notes, categories, and tasks is possible in Entourage with the use of Exchange Web Services.

Supported Protocols

There are standard open protocols which allow a client to interoperate with a mail server. IMAP4

Various clients use the IMAP4 protocol to access and manipulate messaging data on a server. Exchange Server 2007 supports IMAP4 and allows IMAP4-based e-mail clients to access mailbox data.

POP3POP3 is another protocol used by clients to store on and retrieve messages from the server. Exchange Server 2007 allows POP3 e-mail clients to access mailbox data.

For more detailed technical information on protocols supported by Exchange Server 2007, visit Exchange Server Protocols Documentation.

Storage InteroperabilityFor an efficient Exchange Server 2007 deployment, an organization needs to choose an appropriate storage technology and tools to manage Exchange stores and data. Choosing storage for an Exchange system involves balancing performance, disk space requirements, scalability, and cost. Exchange Server 2007 offers a set of interfaces and services that help to manage, back up, and restore Exchange stores and databases. Exchange Server 2007 provides support for storage technologies like iSCSI, SATA, and Fiber Channel. If an organization has any of these storage technologies already implemented, they can use their existing storage infrastructure to connect with Exchange Server 2007. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disks can be directly attached to Exchange Server 2007 and is the preferred storage technology. Internet SCSI (iSCSI) can connect Exchange Server 2007 to storage over Ethernet.Microsoft has started the Microsoft Exchange Solution Reviewed Program (ESRP) – Storage v2.1 program, which helps test and validate third-party storage options designed for Exchange Server. This program combines a storage testing tool (Jetstress) with solution publishing guidelines. For more information on ESRP, visit Microsoft Exchange Solution Reviewed Program (ESRP) – Storage v2.1

Antivirus InteroperabilityViruses, worms, and other malicious content that can be transmitted by e-mail are a destructive reality faced by many e-mail administrators. In an effort to fend off these threats, organizations sometimes use custom applications that need programmatic access to an Exchange database. Therefore, it is essential to deploy a defense mechanism at SMTP Gateway, mailbox database, desktop, and file scanning levels. Exchange Server 2007 provides a set of virus-scanning APIs and Web services that allow different antivirus software applications to interoperate with it and help enable it to deliver clean messages to users inside and outside the enterprise network.

Page 8

Web Services and APIs Virus scanning API (VSAPI)

Exchange Server 2007 supports interoperability with other antivirus programs using VSAPI, which ensures that messages and attachments are completely scanned before any client accesses them.

Transport agentsExchange Server 2007 has a class library based on the Microsoft .NET Framework that enables developers to create transport agents, which can programmatically examine and take action on transport events. For more information on this library, visit Transport Agents and Working with Exchange Transport Agents.

Archiving/Compliance Tool InteroperabilitySoftware powers most of the business communication in the world today. Organizations need to retain e-mail messages for historical purposes or to comply with industry regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO, HIPAA, Basel II, and others. Archiving internal and external e-mail makes it possible to search records and conduct internal investigations if the need arises. Microsoft partners with several companies to offer archiving and compliance solutions for Exchange Server 2007. These solutions help enable enterprises to design a backup and recovery strategy to efficiently protect their messaging data and assist them with their regulatory compliance effort.Third-Party Archiving and Compliance Solutions for Exchange Server 2007Exchange Server supports many third-party tools for archiving and compliance purposes to help organizations meet regulatory standards. For a list of third-party solutions and tools that interoperate with Exchange Server 2007, visit Exchange Server 2007 Partners: Compliance and Exchange Server 2007 Partners: Back-up and Archive.

Page 9

Part II: Other Interoperability AspectsThis section describes how Exchange Server 2007 promotes interoperability through data portability, support for industry standards, and open engagement.

Data Portability Once an organization uses one software product to store data, they should be able to subsequently access that data in a way that permits its use in other software products. Exchange Server 2007 supports data portability by implementing industry-standard formats.Industry-Standard FormatsMany Microsoft products support a wide range of data formats established by standards bodies, helping to promote data portability. Exchange Server 2007 provides a number of text conversion classes that help convert data into different formats such as HTML, RTF, enriched text, and plain text. To view a list of those classes, visit Microsoft.Exchange.Data.TextConverters. The following table lists the industry-standard formats supported by Exchange Server 2007.Standards and file formats

Industry Standards/

Data Format/

RFC Numbers

Standard/RFC Name Description

HTMLHTML 4.01 Reference Specification (REC-html40)

This specification is implemented by the Exchange Server 2007 Text Conversion component and converts other formats to HTML-formatted text.

WS-I WS-I Basic Profile 1.0

WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 is developed by Web Services-Interoperability Organization (WS-I) Standards, which defines a set of non-proprietary Web services specifications that promote interoperability. In Exchange Server 2007 this standard is implemented by Exchange Server 2007 Web services.

POP3 Post Office Protocol – Version 3

Exchange Server 2007 implements this standard through Exchange Server 2007 POP3 Services.

LDAP API The LDAP Application Program Interface

Exchange Server 2007 implements this standard to interact with Active Directory®.

TLS 1.1The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.1

Exchange Server 2007 implements this standard protocol through the IMAP4 service, POP3 service, and Exchange Server 2007 Transport service.

RFC: 3370 Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)

Exchange Server 2007 supports CMS through Exchange Server 2007 Office Outlook Web Access and S/MIME control.

RFC: 2822 Internet Message Format

Exchange Server 2007 implements this format through the MIME Conversion Shared Components.

RFC: 3464An extensible message format for delivery status notifications

Exchange Server 2007 implements this format through the Transport Service.

RFC: 3629UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646

Exchange Server 2007 supports UTF-8 encoding format for the encoding of data.

For more information on supported standard formats, visit Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 RFC and Support for Standards.

Page 10

Open EngagementTo improve Exchange Server 2007interoperability, Microsoft is working with customers, partners, open source communities, and other IT communities. This open engagement is a part of a commitment to interoperability. Interoperability ForumMicrosoft has created the Interoperability Forum, a central place to discuss issues related to interoperability. This Web-based resource primarily focuses on providing information about what Microsoft is doing regarding the interoperability of its products with other products. The Interoperability Forum contains the following discussion areas:

Interoperability Conversations Technical Interoperability Scenarios Achieving Interoperability through Standards

Other forums and blogs about Exchange Server 2007 and open specifications of Microsoft products include:

Using the Exchange Server Protocols Documentation on Standards Exchange Development Forums Exchange API-spotting Exchange Developer Roadmap Open Specifications Forum Group

Open Source Interoperability InitiativeMicrosoft has initiated a set of new activities and programs as part of an Open Source Interoperability Initiative that will increase collaboration between Microsoft and open source communities. These include:

Codeplex is a Microsoft open source project hosting Web site. In this workspace, open source community and Microsoft IT professionals can initiate new projects, join existing projects, or even download software created by developers who are part of the community.

Port25 is the blog space of open source community at Microsoft to interact with customers and other open source industry people. It includes conversations on Linux, Microsoft Windows®, and open source interoperability.

Microsoft Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program offers information about enterprise telephony infrastructure, including finding qualified SIP-PSTN gateways, IP-PBXs, and SIP Trunking services, and the process for telephony infrastructure vendors to join and participate in the program.

Page 11

Conclusion Exchange Server 2007 exemplifies the Microsoft commitment to designing products that address interoperability and open connections, and support industry standards and data portability. As more organizations adopt Web services and as more business transactions rely on the messaging infrastructure, your organization can benefit from a messaging system that interoperates with other applications and software in a way that helps to simplify the flow of communication. Exchange Server 2007 interoperates with other components of your IT infrastructure to help solve issues related to the management of multiple messaging resources and making different message types—such as voice mail, e-mail, and fax—available in a single mailbox. End users can access their messages and communicate using a wide variety of applications and devices, from nearly anywhere at any time. Because Exchange Server 2007 works with non-Microsoft products and other messaging servers, it can help your organization can resolve interoperability issues between different platforms. The interoperability features of Exchange Server 2007 provide technology executives and IT managers with an opportunity to adopt a solution that can help improve their organization’s messaging infrastructure. Additionally, developers can work with the Web service and API specifications of Exchange Server 2007 to run their applications on it and help meet challenges posed by compliance, security, disaster recovery, and connectivity to Microsoft and non-Microsoft products.

Page 12

Notes and References Microsoft Interoperability Principles

http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/default.mspx Interoperability Forum

http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/forum.mspx Open Source Interoperability Initiative

http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/interop Open Protocols Documentation

http://msdn.microsoft.com/openprotocols Exchange Server Protocol

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc307725.aspx Microsoft Exchange Server Standards

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc973105.aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc540463.aspx

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 RFC and Support for Standardshttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc540463.aspx

Exchange Server Developer Centerhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/default.aspx

Exchange Server 2007 Legacy API Property Mappinghttp://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=cde26ea9-5647-448f-a5e6-ae094a882ee5&displaylang=en

Telephony Advisor for Exchange Server 2007http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164342.aspx

Understanding Protocols, Ports, and Services in Unified Messaginghttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998265.aspx

Unified Messaging Web servicehttp://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=77817

Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI)http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa579299.aspx

New Anti-spam and Antivirus Functionalityhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996551.aspx

Calendar on the Internethttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa494215.aspx

Page 13