Exchange alternatives: Pros and cons: Testing shows Microsoft's Exchange still tops for features and management hooks.

For many enterprises, Exchange is synonymous with corporate e-mail.

The one-two punch of Exchange server on the back end and Outlook e-mail client on the desktop has allowed Microsoft to pull down 65% of the enterprise messaging market. (Compare messaging products.)

However, with the release of Exchange 2007, Microsoft opened the door for some substantial competition. The upgrade costs, hardware requirements, and hassles of jumping to the latest version have many businesses asking: "Is Microsoft still the right answer?"

In this Clear Choice Test, we explore how Exchange alternatives stack up against Microsoft's offer, as well as each other.Our testing focuses on products for midsized deployments of 1,000 mailboxes or less. We tested six Exchange alternatives: CommuniGate Pro (CommuniGate Systems), Kerio MailServer (Kerio...