Microsoft Posts Public Beta of Exchange Server 2003

Your company e-mail may soon get a long-awaited overhaul. Microsoft has released the first public beta of Exchange Server 2003, expected to ship this summer as the first significant enhancement to the flagship e-mail software in almost three years, and it's designed to make access to your corporate in-box faster and easier.

The public beta of Exchange Server 2003--previously code-named Titanium--is available on CD upon registration or even by download from Microsoft.

Many of Exchange Server 2003's most important enhancements are on the server side. They include more efficient use of server storage and resources, and improved security via the virus-scanning API (VSAPI) and through support for Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) on Exchange servers outside the corporate firewall, or front-end servers, as well as on back-end servers.

Still, plenty of new client features are included, particularly for mobile workers. The most significant of these enhancements require use of Microsoft's new Windows .Net Server 2003 and Outlook 11, which is part of Microsoft's new Office 11 suite.

Easier Access

Outlook's performance over dial-up or another low-bandwidth connection has been improved via Exchange Server's new Cache Mode, which is an intermediate step between offline and online. Cache Mode lets you work from an up-to-date version of your mailbox stored on your local machine. This new mode adjusts automatically to the available bandwidth, says Edward Wu, Microsoft Exchange Server product manager.

"Even when you're on a very slow link you haven't compromised much because the local store is getting updated in the background," Wu says.

"I use Cache Mode all the time," Wu says. "It gives me the top performance when I connect to the network directly, and it switches automatically to offline mode if my mobile wireless link is dropped." Cache Mode reestablishes dropped connections automatically as well.

Mobile access is also improved via support for cHTML (Compact Hypertext Markup Language), WAP 2.0 (Wireless Application Protocol), and NTT DoCoMo's IMode technology for handheld computers. And accessing your Exchange Server e-mail over the Web will be easier with the new version of Outlook Web Access (OWA) that ships with Exchange Server 2003.

OWA lacks many of Outlook 11's e-mail management features, but it will have the same new interface as Outlook 11, as well as improved spell checking, task management, spam filtering, and other Outlook functionality. Also added is support for Short Message Service for sending and receiving text messages on mobile devices. (Editor's note: Shortly after the announcement, Microsoft clarified that Exchange Server 2003's SMS support is limited to providing alerts when new messages arrive.)

Get Connected

If you've been wrestling with a virtual private network to reach your corporate e-mail account from outside the firewall, you'll be glad to learn that Exchange Server 2003 lets you connect more quickly and seamlessly through remote procedure calls over HTTPS rather than via the VPN. However, this feature also requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Outlook 11 on the client, and Windows .NET Server 2003 on the server.

Microsoft's Wu believes many organizations will take a phased approach to implementing Exchange Server 2003 since many of the product's new features require Office 11's new version of Outlook, as well as Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows .NET Server 2003. Mobile workers are likely to be upgraded first to take advantage of Exchange Server's many new remote-access features, according to Wu.

The new version of Exchange was first announced in July, surprising customers and analysts who had expected the next upgrade to be a long-discussed software package that was code-named Kodiak. The release of that software package, which is expected to tie in heavily to Microsoft's .Net initiative, has since been postponed. Exchange Server 2003 is based on the same code as Exchange 2000, the current release. Exchange Server 2003 pricing has not yet been set.