As many of you have probably figured out by now, I've spent a lot of time working with Exchange in VMs. Some of that time was spent explaining to peers, users, customers, and family members just exactly why in the world anybody would want to put Exchange into a VM. (To be honest - I don't think I was able to convince my mom.)

Early this week I ran across an entry titled Eight Good Uses for VMware and Other Virtual Machine Software on the TechnologySpeak blog. Number three on the list - Running an Exchange Server to Keep Outlook Synchronized. Turns out that having a local Exchange Server on your home network can make it much easier and faster to sync up Outlook across the 4 or 5 systems that you have at your house. If you are reading this entry, then I would bet that you have at least that many.

The only caveats that the blog calls out:

"The initial setup is a little bit tricky if you're not familiar with installing servers and server software, but once you get it going, it works very smoothly. Also, for many, the initial cost of buying the software might be prohibitive."

Meaning that you have to be a geek or a professional Exchange admin or both. On the cost perspective I initially thought that it might be really really prohibitive, but a little digging around and it looks like Microsoft Small Business Server licenses aren't too bad. The list price for SBS R2 is $599, which includes the Windows Server OS, Exchange Server, and 5 CALs.

With the memorial holiday weekend coming up, I think that everybody should take a break from the grill and spend some time getting your own virtualized Exchange Server setup for the house.

Todd