If you didn’t believe there’s a lot to learn about Microsoft Exchange 2010, all you need do is pick up a copy of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Best Practices, by Siegfried Jagott and Joel Stidley. Make sure you use your legs when you do so, though, lest you injure your back hefting the 900-plus page book.

While Jagott and Stidley may not be household names, their credentials and experience appears impeccable. “Individually and collectively the authors who wrote this book have been working with Exchange 2010 for as long as many senior developers at Microsoft,” Microsoft Senior Program Manager for the Exchange Ship Team David Espinoza writes in the foreword to the book.

“They have done an awesome job of providing readers with the ins and outs of the full range of features of Exchange 2010, which will help you get the most out of the product,” he continued. “Exchange administrators will find the experienced, hands-on approach of this book valuable in designing and deploying Exchange 2010.”

“You wouldn’t want a book that only skimmed and introduced new features,” he added. “Fortunately for you, this book is based on the experience of years of successful development in complex environments and a teamwork approach to the final design process.”

As might be expected, this best practices volume will have a narrow audience. According to the authors, their work is aimed at experienced messaging architects, Exchange administrators, support professionals and engineers–especially those who are working in medium to large enterprise organizations and have at least one year of experience in administering, deploying, managing, monitoring, upgrading, migrating and designing Exchange Server.

What’s more, they recommend readers know how to do these things:

• Design and deploy an Exchange messaging enterprise according to business requirements.
• Understand active directory concepts, especially how sites and services provide its essential structure.
• Understand the Windows permission model.
• Have good experience with the networking protocol TCP/IP v4 and the messaging protocol SMTP.
• Understand Windows PKI infrastructure and digital certificates.

Because the book doesn’t explain every feature of Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Management Console and Windows Power Shell, the authors also recommend a reader have a good understanding of those components.

In general, they peg the audience at those “interested in insights and in looking beyond the common administrative tasks performed in Exchange 2010, as well as those who want to unveil the full functionality of the product.”

The book is organized into four parts. It starts with preparing for an Exchange Server 2010 installation, moves to designing one, talks about upgrading from previous versions and ends with deploying and managing the software.

The preparation section touches on the history of the program and an overview of its features. Service Pack 1 is covered in the material, too, as well as a narrative about the case studies used to illustrate aspects of the book. In addition, environmental considerations, like network topography, are discussed.

In the design section, client access, routing and transport, mailbox services, and edge transport and messaging security are examined. So, too, is unified messaging, federated delegation, high availability, backup, disaster recovery, and hardware planning.

For readers moving to Exchange 2010 from earlier versions–2003 and 2007–the upgrade section offers some valuable information in that regard.

The final section of the book zeroes in on deployment and management subjects. Deployment topics include exchange and active directory services, environmental health of Exchange and automating service installation. Among the management topics is a discussion of permission models and managing recipients–contacts, groups, resources and mailboxes. Material on operating and troubleshooting Exchange are also included in the section.

Sprinkled throughout the book is lots of “sidebar” material. There are “Notes from the Field”–observations from Microsoft consultants, technical support professionals, partners and early adopters about particular topics. There are “Inside Track” sidebars that include inside information and tips on subjects from Microsoft program managers, technical product managers, developers and testers. “Lessons Learned” boxes that are examples of things that can go wrong when working with Exchange and suggestions on how to avoid them. And there are “Trade-Offs” sidebars that discuss the pros and cons of key decisions that must be made when trying to implement a best practice in Exchange.

To readers who may find a 900-page book daunting, Microsoft Program Manager Expinoza offers these words of encouragement:

“Recently there has been talk about books like this being out of date as soon as they go to press, or that getting information from the Internet is the new way to learn. To this I say, ‘Nonsense!’ With this book, you will gain from the authors’ vast experience with a topic that is vast in scope.”