Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant launches

Now this is a neat idea; I wish I’d thought of it.

Microsoft’s released the Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant, a web site that interviews you about what your deployment plans are and then assembles a customized subset of the Exchange 2010 documentation for you.

You start by indicating whether you’re moving from an existing deployment (either 2003, 2007, or mixed) or creating a new one. Once you’ve done that, you answer questions (such as "will you be using public folders?" or "do you plan to deploy unified messaging?"), and you get a checklist like this one:

The tool is clearly still in the early stages of development; it only includes content for upgrading from pure Exchange 2003 environments. However, it’s an improvement over the old deployment wizard in two major ways. First, it’s more highly customized for your particular migration plans. Second, it gives you a single point of access to everything you need to know about a particular topic (like installing a mailbox server).

I’m looking forward to seeing how the product group improves the tool in future releases. Check it out and you’ll see what I mean.