The Benefits of Load and Speed Testing

Putting high demand on any device or system is more commonly known as load testing. Performing a load test will determine if a system will behave both normally and abnormally under stress.

A load test also identifies each system’s or device’s operating capacity when apps are pushed to their limit. Thus determining any element’s degradation. When a load is placed beyond normal usage, it tests a system’s response to increased loads. This is what we refer to as a stress test. Loads are so high that one expects errors to occur. But unfortunately there is no clear distinction of when a load test ends and a stress test begins.

Not much agreement can be made on a load test’s goals. All that is known is that a load test is a specific technique that measures the stimulation a single system receives from multiple system users. This becomes beneficial to a company that wants to obtain software with multi-users in mind.

Another load testing benefit includes the ability to test from the perspective of your customer. With customers spread all over the web, using a testing network called “last mile” allows you to gain perspective. But, because the capabilities are limited to test labs, SaaS providers only offer load testing to specific geographical areas. This is one thing that loadview-testing.com does when they test your site from multiple locations around the world.

More load testing benefits include but are not limited to:

• Risk of downtime is reduced tremendously
• Quality of deployment is improved
• Customer satisfaction is increased
• Developers receive statistics that are very tangible
• Benchmarks are created in the SDLC
• Your app’s scalability is improved
• Risk of poor performance is minimized (click here to learn about how that can be minimized by faster web hosting)
• Failure costs are extremely low
• Funds for marketing are maximized
• Costs for software optimization using metrics that are accurate are optimized
• SLA risk is reduced
• Process improvements are continuously maintained by tuning
• Executives are given KPIs to utilize resource
• System failure that requires scrapping is eliminated
• System deployment that is late because of bad performance is eliminated
• Avoidable bad performance caused by system rework is eliminated

How to Delete Microsoft Exchange Mailbox

There are many reasons as to why you must delete a Microsoft Exchange mailbox. No matter what your reason may be, there are several dedicated steps you must take to ensure the mailbox database is completely deleted and disabled to prevent messages from being received, but not read due to mailbox inactivity. While the actual database for a mailbox remains “alive” for 30 days after the mailbox has been deleted, the database will be automatically deleted after this retention period, which is also referred to as being purged.

The Difference Between Deleting and Disabling

Before delving into the steps necessary to delete a mailbox, it’s essential to understand the difference between deleting a mailbox or simply disabling it. When you delete a mailbox, you’re completely removing the attributes assigned to Exchange and the Active Directory for that specific user account. When you disable a mailbox, the account stays “active,” but cannot send or receive new messages.

There are also five different mailboxes that are assigned to each user account. Because of how the exchange is set up, you can delete four out of the five mailboxes while the fifth can only be disabled. These mailboxes include:

• User Mailbox – May be deleted and disabled
• Shared Mailbox – May be deleted and disabled
• Resource Mailbox – Cannot be disabled, but can be deleted
• Linked Mailbox – May be deleted and disabled
• Archive Mailbox – May be disabled, is not recommended to be deleted unless the primary mailbox is deleted. Archive mailbox is deleted after the 30 day retention period.

Deleting User Mailbox

There are two ways you may delete an Exchange user mailbox. These include:

• Using the EAC – To delete a mailbox using the EAC, navigate to the “Recipients” folder and select “Mailboxes.” Next, you’ll find a list of user mailboxes. Select the mailbox you wish to permanently delete. Once selected, click “Delete.” Upon clicking, a dialogue box will ask to confirm this action. Select “Yes” to permanently delete the a user mailbox. To determine whether or not this action worked, return to the EAC and click “Recipients.” Navigate to the page that showcases all current user accounts. Review this list to determine whether or not the account was deleted.  Keep in mind that Exchange is a web application, and if you’re looking to monitor any aspect of your email server/OWA web app, you can use a free tool like Everystepautomation (located at https://everystep-automation.com) to make sure that you don’t have any errors in the process.
• Using Shell – To delete a mailbox using Shell, you’re required to key specific commands into the system. Key, “Remove-Mailbox <identity>” Replace <identity> with the username of the account you wish to delete. For example, “Remove-Mailbox john@johndoecompany.com” To determine whether or not this process worked, run the following command, “Get-User <identity>”. For example, “Get-User john@johndoecompany.com”.

How Microsoft Exchange Benefits Your Business

Designed to expedite email communications, Microsoft Exchange has grown to be one of the most popular email clients in the business world. Because email is one of the most critical levels of communication between companies of all sizes, the email servers you choose to implement play a direct role in the functionality and performance of your entire business. While there are challenges that face even the most well-designed Exchange servers, there are also numerous benefits to choosing Microsoft Exchange over other email clients.

Data Protection Through Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Strategies

Perhaps one of the biggest security concerns many corporations have when it comes to emailing is accidentally sending sensitive or confidential information to the wrong email address. Thanks to Microsoft Exchange, this potentially damaging situation can be avoided. The latest version of Exchange features a Data Loss Prevention policy that monitors, identifies and protects sensitive data from being sent to unauthorized parties. These built-in DLP policies follow regulatory standards and is able to be customized and integrated into your existing support policies.

Consolidate All Data Into A Single Server

Regardless of your business size, Exchange allows users to archive and store all vital information within their primary mailbox. This benefit is essential when dealing with vast quantities of information scattered across multiple users. With Exchange, all sensitive information can be perfectly organized and archived for easy access.

Advanced Collaboration Capabilities

The most important element for the growth of any business is the ability for multiple parties to collaborate on a single project. While there are many different project management solutions capable of achieving this goal, Microsoft Exchange provides a simple, and familiar, platform to collaborate on a single project. Not only can users view documents and communicate with each other using a familiar interface, but with flexible tool such as co-authoring, document storage and group-specific project management, gathering thoughts and transforming these ideas into reality has never been easier.

Stop Malicious Emails Before They Arrive

Unlike other email servers, Exchange actively works to sift out malicious emails before they ever reach users. Microsoft Exchange comes with multi-layered email protection to monitor all incoming messages to eliminate phishing schemes or other hacking attempts.

Streamlined Mobile Device Experience

It’s no secret that mobile devices have integrated into almost every aspect of our digital lives. This integration has moved into how businesses communicate with employees and with customers. The latest Microsoft Exchange release understands the importance of mobile device communications. Therefore, its interface has been designed to provide a clean touchscreen experience optimized for speed and functionality. If your business utilizes mobile communications as part of its daily routine, then this is one of the most beneficial advantages Microsoft Exchange has to offer for your communication solutions. If you want to monitor how your OWA looks on a mobile device, you might want to consider using a free tool like EveryStep Automation (you can visit their site here), or another free scripting tool where you can look at how things are being rendered and check for errors.