Microsoft unveils details of next Exchange release

By John Cox
Network World Fusion, 6/3/98

New Orleans - Microsoft Corp. managers this week outlined the Platinum release, the next big version of Microsoft Exchange.

Platinum is due out "roughly" in mid-1999, according to Charles Eliot, program manager for the Exchange product unit, who spoke to users attending the annual Microsoft Tech*Ed conference in New Orleans.

Eliot outlined a direction that will make the e-mail server a clearinghouse for not only e-mail exchange but, increasingly, for new forms of instantaneous, or real-time, interactions by millions of users.

In the next release, Exchange will be wholly dependent on the new Active Directory that is a key part of the upcoming Windows NT 5.0. Among other capabilities, the new directory will give Exchange administrators much greater and more detailed access control. Performance will be improved because directory information in Platinum can be replicated as subsets to multiple servers.

He promised his listeners that existing Exchange clients and interfaces will continue to work with the new release.

To simplify management, the next Exchange will feature a Web interface and the ability to run management scripts to automate tasks.

Another major change will be the ability to divide, or partition, Exchange servers and data and to create clusters of servers. Partitioning will improve overall performance in large sites and increase the availability of the application in case one or more servers or network links fail.

By using the OLE/DB data access interface and new Collaboration Data Objects, Exchange programmers will be able to more easily access a wide range of mail and mail-based data, Eliot said.

Users liked what they heard.

"We're real interested in online collaboration," said Robert Bensen, senior technical architect of Andersen Corp. in Bayport, Minn. "We have one executive who drives 35,000 miles a year meeting with people. We want to cut that back."

"Exchange is becoming a collaboration mechanism," agreed John Weigel, a technical architect who works with Bensen. "E-mail used to be convenient. Now, it's part of our basic business processes."

As a result, he said, Platinum's emphasis on partitioning, clustering and administration are vital.

Andersen, which makes double-glazed windows, has some suppliers that rely on Exchange-based e-mail to ensure just-in-time deliveries to Andersen. "If they don't get through [via e-mail], we don't get products manufactured," Weigel said. "We send people home if that mail message doesn't get through on time."