Next Exchange to combine e-mail, voice mail

Microsoft outlined on Wednesday a new future for its Exchange server, effectively turning the software into what it hopes will be a one-stop shop for e-mail, voice mail and faxes.

The software maker said the next version, code-named Exchange 12, will let workers access their voice mail from their PC and allow them to dial in to the server via telephone and get voice mail, as well as calendar and e-mail data.

"Your Exchange Server is, in essence, your voice mail server," Corporate Vice President Dave Thompson said in an interview. So-called unified messaging has long been talked about but has typically been cumbersome, often requiring compromises or the bolting together of several pieces of software.

In addition to adding fax and voice mail abilities, Exchange 12 is absorbing a number of features Microsoft had planned to release in an add-on called Exchange Edge Services that was due to ship this year. The product was designed to help address the growing challenges of weeding out viruses and spam and ensuring that e-mails are properly handled to comply with various regulations.

Microsoft has now scuttled the plans for Edge Services, although some of the antispam features will come in the Service Pack 2 update to Exchange 2003, which is due in the second half of this year. For instance, SP2 will support Microsoft's Sender ID technology for verifying that an e-mail's sender is who they say they are. Service Pack 2 will also add a number of features to improve access from mobile devices, such as allowing synchronizations to be initiated by the server and the ability to remotely destroy data on a device that has been lost.

Other technology, particularly improvements in terms of policy and management, will wait until Exchange 12, Thompson said.

Microsoft is not saying exactly when Exchange 12 will arrive but said the company can keep pace with its historical record of releasing a new version every three to four years.

"We're on track for that," said Kim Akers, a senior director in Microsoft's Exchange unit.

Since Exchange 2003 shipped in Fall 2003, a release date of 2006 or 2007 is likely, Microsoft said.

The company still has work to do in getting users to upgrade from its prior products--Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000. Six months ago, 40 percent of companies were still using Exchange 5.5, Thompson said. Now that number is 30 percent, and the company hopes that it will be

[kenyee]

High availability email is easy w/ Lotus Notes/Domino :-)

You could do it way back in R4. Clustered servers over a WAN link which you can't do w/ Exchange because it needs a shared drive system
Put servers up in different cities and mail still works even if a city's server is trashed...