MS Exchange set up query

[kikox2k]

Hi Guys,
We have a situation with exchange set up and was wondering whether you guys can help?
Here is the scenario:
2 small companies company A and company B that reside in the same office space currently have the following e-mail configuration.

Exchange Server A ( 2003 Standard Edition) running in the office equipment room. The Exchange Server A has full connectivity to an ISP.

Company B currently uses a hosted e-mail solution.

However the plan is for an Exchange Server to be introduced to serve Company B and stop using the hosted solution. Exchange Server B ( 2003 Standard Edition - although could be upgradeable to Exchange 2007 standard edition ) will not be run in an office but in a remote data centre in the same country.

Do you guys think that it would be possible to get these 2 exchange servers to work together?

The reason for this change is so

1.A user can retrieve historical e-mails at will from local back ups if required from both companies.

2.The same user can view calendars from both servers using one client ( Outlook ).

This user works remotely or in the office.

Each company has its own e-mail address convention i.e. firstname.lastname@companya.eu and firstnameinitial.lastname@comapnyb.com

Is there a configuration that will achieve this functionality ?

Regards

 

[58sniper]

Exchange Server B ( 2003 Standard Edition - although could be upgradeable to Exchange 2007 standard edition )

There is not direct upgrade path, as Exchange 2007 is 64 bit only.

Outlook does not support multiple Exchange profiles in the same Outlook profile, so you'd have to have some trusts setup so that the free/busy info could go back and forth, and then share out the calendars accordingly.

How are you intending on retreiving "historical e-mails" for either company when one server will be remote?

Are both of these servers going to be in the same AD forest?

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP