Microsoft Releases Beta Of Exchange Server
Alexander Gusak
(10/05/99, 11:34 a.m. ET)
By Aaron Ricadela, InformationWeek
Microsoft on Monday released the first public beta version of Exchange
Server 2000, its next-generation messaging software code-named "Platinum."
Exchange Server 2000, which is available for download on Microsoft's website
and through resellers, invokes forthcoming technology in Windows 2000 to
enable larger deployments, ease user administration, and improve
collaboration features, the vendor said.
Exchange Server 2000 supports four-node clustering with load balancing and
failover for increased reliability and availability compared with Exchange
5.5, said lead product manager Gytis Barzdukas. The Active Directory
services in Windows 2000 enable IT administrators to centrally manage
Exchange user information and network rights. And a distributed
configuration aims for Internet and application service providers managing
large numbers of users.
On the back end of Exchange Server 2000 lies Microsoft's new Web Store, an
Exchange database that assigns a Web address to each message, task, and
calendar entry. That enables users to access their mailboxes from any
Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator client with a "human-readable URL,"
Barzdukas said. It also lets IT managers build Web-based workflow
applications using Exchange, because desktop users can save Office documents
in the Exchange public folder since the Web Store employs Internet standard
protocols.
"That's one of the barriers we're removing," he added.
Beta 3 of Exchange Server 2000, as Microsoft calls the test release, will
also include instant messaging capabilities and video conferencing services
enabled by the Jasper technology Microsoft acquired when it bought Flash
Communications last year. Microsoft is still deciding which services it will
include when it ships Exchange Server 2000 during the first half of next
year, and which will be available as add-ons to the product, Barzdukas said.
More than a dozen companies have been testing earlier versions of the
product since last December.