Around the time when I first became MIS Director at Zamias Services, I was tasked with implementing a new e-mail server. At the time, we were running Exchange 5.5 on a Windows 2003 Server. The server hardware and software was obsolete and prone to possible failure due to the age of the hardware. The biggest problem with Exchange 5.5 was the size limit on the information store where all user’s e-mail was kept. Zamias had users that heavily used e-mail and the information store limit was only 16GB.

This had to be continuously monitored and when the 16GB limit was almost reached, I had to manually export e-mail from user’s mailboxes to PST files then compact the Exchange private database. It was very time consuming and put Zamias at an increased risk of having no e-mail.

I put together a proposal and presented it to the executive committee of the Zamias Services, Inc. I laid out my case for a new server and tape backup solution. I tried to present it and explain it in such a way that non-technical committe memebers could understand. My proposal was approved and I worked with a local vendor to help upgrade and implement the new server. It worked out great and users were extremely happy with all of the new features. It even allowed me to take a vacation without having to worry about the information store blow up. 😀

Download: MIS Exchange Upgrade Proposal