Exchange 2010's conversation threading feature, as seen in a screenshot of Outlook Web Access.
(Credit: Microsoft)The next version of Microsoft's corporate e-mail server will not only offer the ability to view e-mail by conversations, but also the option of "muting" any thread that a user would rather not take part in.
Conversation threading, a popular feature from Google's Gmail, and the mute option are several of the new features in Exchange 2010, the next version of the company's e-mail and calendar server. The software is entering public beta on Wednesday, with a final launch slated for the second half of this year.
Among the other features of the product, which has been code-named Exchange 14, is something Microsoft has dubbed "MailTips," which offers warnings when one might be about to commit an e-mail faux pas.
"MailTips is kind of like a guardian angel before you send the mail," Microsoft's Rajesh Jha said in an interview this week. For example, it will warn a user if they are about to send an e-mail to a large distribution list or if they are going to send an attachment outside their company's firewall.
Microsoft is also building in new archiving features into Exchange 2010, features that will allow companies to store a user's e-mail archive as well as make archived messages available to users when they are not at their desktop or laptop PC.
Many of Exchange 14's features work in the Web-based Outlook Web Access program, but to use them on the desktop will require Office 2010, which isn't due out until the first half of next year, Microsoft said.
"Exchange is leading the way," Jha said.
Microsoft is already using Exchange 2010 to power its Live@edu service for schools and universities. Customers of Exchange Online, Microsoft's hosted service for businesses, will have the option of moving to the new Exchange after the server software is released, Jha said.
For a bit more on Exchange 2010, here's a video I shot with Jha during an interview at his office earlier this year.
Microsoft VP Rajesh Jha likens building complex software to building a skyscraper. With Exchange 14, though, Microsoft is having customers set up their offices even while the building is under construction.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)REDMOND, Wash.--Rajesh Jha likens complex software projects to building a skyscraper.
That means in the end, the thing might look pretty good. Along the way, though, it tends to be kind of a mess.
"If you walk by the site of a skyscraper under construction, it looks chaotic," Microsoft corporate VP Rajesh Jha said in an interview last week. "It looks confused. You will see dirt, scaffolding."
At the end, though, if it is useful, it will be something worth all the dust.
"If it is designed well, what comes out is something that adds a lot of value, something that folks use for a long time."
But, with the next version of Exchange, Microsoft is actually going to be letting people work from the skyscraper while it is being built. That's because, although the server version of Exchange 14 won't come out until next year, millions of people are already using a hosted service powered by an early version of Exchange 14.
The last version of Exchange, Exchange 2007, was also designed to be run as a hosted service in addition to something used by businesses on their own servers. The last time around, though, Microsoft built the server software first and then delivered the service.
In developing Exchange 14--and indeed many components of the next Office--Microsoft has flipped the switch and is instead developing the service first and doing the server work second.
"In many ways, this wave was about embracing software plus services from the very beginning," Jha said.
By doing the service first, Microsoft is able to create a large base of testers early on. At a comparable stage of Exchange 2007's development, there were a few thousand people running an early version. This time around, Microsoft has 4 million testers, in large part because Exchange 14 is now the engine behind the Exchange Labs service that powers e-mail for many universities and other educational institutions.
That has meant a lot of changes to Redmond's skyscraper construction operation. "The way we do production and testing has really changed in a dramatic way," Jha said. "The release time frame has become so compressed."
In a sense, Exchange 14 isn't really a new piece of software as it is a bunch of updates to the Exchange Online service. "Then we collapse them and build a server," Jha said.
Keeping things neat and tidy amid chaos comes somewhat naturally to Jha, whose office is nearly immaculate, with only a few books, a couple of old boxed copies of Microsoft Works, and the "Ship-it" plaque that commemorates all of the products he has helped get out the door. Jha explains that he moves frequently and his goal was to get his office contents such that they take only one box to pack. (He narrowly missed that goal in his last office shuffle three months ago.)
"I'm moving again next month," Jha said.
For more from Jha, check out the video interview I shot last week.
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