Progress
I believe that Exchange was a fine server around the turn of the millennium.
For me the first problem with Microsoft (and many other vendors) is the constant need to have a new version to sell.
It must be continually developed and that often means new features, a bugfix when necessary and rarely a re-write. Add to that Microsoft's obsessive need to have everything as backward compatible as possible. And the Microsoft takes all of the hardware gains as reasons why it can expand the feature-set. You, the end-user, obviously don't mind (read: can do nothing about) Microsoft robbing your new system of it's new hardware advantages so that the new MS product runs just the same.
The second problem is Satya Nadella. His obsession with moving everything to the Cloud means that the focus of Microsoft's attention in da Cloud. Is Exchange running slow, requires too much attention or breaking down too much? Exchange Online is (well, appears to be) the solution to your problem and you can fire a few of your sysadmins since they could barely manage Exchange. How good can they have been? Never mind, all that matters is that we allow you to lower your TCO. So, it's a win!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
