What's required to remove the last Exchange Server? Administrators who no longer require the on-premises server can focus on Exchange Online administration and avoid worrying about the local install, which requires hardware and software to maintain. With the release of the updated management tools in Exchange Server 2019 in April, organizations can now connect and sync with AD and manage email recipients without the need of an on-premises Exchange Server.įor some organizations that shifted most workloads to the cloud, this option could be the last step to completely offload their on-premises servers. The occasional alerts about Exchange zero-days were painful reminders that the server needed immediate mitigation attention because it is internet-facing. Patching, backing up and securing this remaining Exchange Server was a burden for a workload that was not needed to host mailboxes after the organization moved its users to Exchange Online. These management features included Exchange PowerShell and the Exchange admin center that supported the creation of distribution lists, management of recipients, administration of public folders and supervision of many of the Exchange hybrid configurations.įor organizations that moved on to Microsoft 365, this last Exchange Server was always a big concern.

The need for an on-premises Exchange Server while on Office 365 was mostly due to requiring access to management tools that were on the Exchange admin portal on the local server. Why some organizations need an Exchange hybrid configuration Eliminating that nagging piece of infrastructure removes a potential security issue and reduces the number of machines requiring regular patching.

With this move, administrators without special requirements do not need to retain a management instance of Exchange on-premises to synchronize data from Active Directory to Azure Active Directory. For customers locked into an Exchange hybrid deployment for recipient management, Microsoft addressed their needs and issued an update to the Exchange management tools in Exchange Server 2019 that lets organizations remove this server.

Office 365 removal tool