Microsoft Exchange goes Subscription-only – Read on for what this means to you

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Enjoy this guest blog by Mike Schneider, Solution Engineer, Microsoft Solutions, HPE Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft is making signification changes to the Exchange email product, with the next version planned, Exchange SE, having been announced and expected out in Q3 of 2025. The “SE” in the name means “Subscription Edition” and speaks to the switch to being a subscription-only product. Another change is that there will be progressively limited ability to co-exist older versions of Exchange in the same environment, so this means organizations will need to upgrade fully and relatively quickly.

Fortunately, many organizations around the globe have already been refreshing their Exchange environments on the HPE Alletra 4000s to achieve the scale and low TCO allowing them to keep their email safely on-prem without giving up control to a cloud-based service.  Read up on the info below to learn more about the new version, why you should upgrade on-prem, and what would be the best hardware for the environment.

What’s coming in Exchange

Exchange 2019 CU15 (Cumulative Update 15) is the next version of the software, and marks the end of the “Exchange 2019” product line. It’s slated to be available by the end of this year, with the two most notable changes being:

• TLS 1.3 support, aligning it with the Windows Server 2022 default TLS version
• Certificate management from within the EAC (Exchange Admin Center, not the Eastern Australian Current from “Finding Nemo”)

While keeping CUs up to date is always a good idea for any Exchange environment due to security and bug fixes, updating to CU15 is highly recommended especially if customers are planning on upgrading to the upcoming Exchange SE. CU15 and SE will use the same code base, thus making the move to Exchange SE identical to installing a CU.

Why you need to act now

HPE recommends upgrading to Exchange 2019 because all previous versions of Exchange are now out of support. The lack of security updates should be of great concern for an organization running these older versions. Those versions are also not compatible with the latest version of Windows Server, which will also require an update.

Organizations that choose to stay on older versions will be faced with a legacy upgrade path should they choose to move to SE in the future. This means that there will be extra steps involved, which include adding Exchange 2019 infrastructure to an existing installation and migrating data to those new servers.

HPE hybrid cloud solution for Exchange

If your organization is considering an upgrade for your aging Exchange infrastructure, the HPE Alletra Storage 4000 series is an excellent choice for any Exchange implementation, and we have many customers running on them. They have incredible storage density of either all SSD or a combination of both SSD and HDD to make the most of your Exchange environment while allowing the best price vs performance that suits your needs.

HPE and its authorized resellers have the expertise to get your environment working optimally.

Next steps

While we all wait for news on the release of CU15, here are links to important resources on this product update. Use this info to plan your Exchange on-prem update and reach out to your HPE rep or authorized reseller to get specifics on the best new equipment to use for your new Exchange email environment.

Microsoft Exchange team announcement

• Upgrading your organization from current versions to Exchange Server SE

HPE Hybrid cloud solution for Exchange – technical resources

• Microsoft Exchange on Alletra 4000s solution blog
• Exchange on Alletra Storage Server 4000 Solution Brief
• Microsoft Exchange on Alletra 4000s Deployment guide
• Update to Exchange Server 2019 on Alletra Storage Server 4000 solution team video

About the Author

Meet HPE Storage Blogger, Mike Schneider. Mike is a veteran storage professional who has been testing storage systems and related solutions for many years, and has been providing solutions for Microsoft products including Windows Server, SQL Server, and Exchange for customers on various HPE hardware platforms.