Once you have chosen an upgrade path for your Exchange 2000 deployment from Windows NT 4.0 and Exchange 5.5 to Active Directory, you must consider how to upgrade your messaging environment from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000. Upgrading from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 is a considerably different upgrade from that of previous versions of Exchange to Exchange Server 5.5. This is because the structure of the Exchange 2000 organization has changed. Based on this, it may be reasonable to consider the move to Exchange 2000 as more of a migration than an upgrade, especially if your Exchange 2000 design is much different that your current Exchange Server 5.5 design. With that said, there are two approaches to moving to Exchange 2000 from Exchange Server 5.5:

ÿÿÿÿ If your Exchange 2000 design is similar to your Exchange Server 5.5 design, upgrade your messaging environment in place, taking care to maintain connectivity to any foreign messaging system, such as the Internet, during the upgrade.

ÿÿÿÿ If your Exchange 2000 design is considerably different from your Exchange Server 5.5 design, migrate your existing Exchange Server 5.5 environment to Exchange 2000. This way, your focus is on deploying the Exchange 2000 design and migrating data from the legacy Exchange system to Exchange 2000.

It is also important to move familiar functionality from your Exchange Server 5.5 environment to your Exchange 2000 environment. The look and feel of the client should not change without proper training and change management of the end users. This includes features like:

ÿÿÿÿ Creating Exchange 2000 Address Lists that are similar to your Exchange Server 5.5 Address Book Views

ÿÿÿÿ Defining an Exchange 2000 offline address book server

ÿÿÿÿ Creating Exchange 2000 recipient policies that provide users with the same e-mail addresses they had in Exchange Server 5.5

By comparing your Exchange 2000 design (which may define things like Address Lists) and your existing Exchange Server 5.5 environment, you can list those things that need to be configured in Exchange 2000 as they were configured in Exchange Server 5.5-as well as those things that will be new to users and require training or some other form of communication.

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