Microsoft Thursday shipped Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 that includes support for the forthcoming Windows Server 2008 and enhancements to real-time communication and mobile device integration. Microsoft also made available Forefront Security for Exchange Server 2007 SP1, which includes improved content filtering and management, and support for Windows Server 2008. Microsoft had promised to release the Exchange 2007 update between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, and the company hit the mark even though the software arrived just more than a year after Exchange 2007 first shipped. 

The Windows Server 2008 support in SP1 is significant because it will lead users to the first virtualization platform from Microsoft that supports the 64-bit only Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft’s current Virtual Server 2005 R2 platform supports only 32-bit guest operating systems. Windows Server 2008 is slated to ship between Jan. 1 and March 31 with the Hyper-V virtualization add-on coming within 180 days.

Users have called the incompatibility between the messaging server and the current virtualization platform “a dreadful mistake,” given that Microsoft competitor and market leader VMware already supports Exchange 2007 on its virtualization software, thus providing disaster recovery and business continuity options Microsoft is just starting to address within the Exchange 2007 software.

With SP1, Microsoft added a feature called Standby Continuous Replication, which lets a single-site cluster fail over to servers in different geographic locations. “Customers looking at business continuity really need to think about how they’re going to implement those solutions,” says Keith McCall, CTO of managed Exchange e-mail provider Azaleos. “Are they going to use the new Exchange 2007 Standby Continuous Replications or are they going to go to a virtualization solution?”

McCall is a proponent of the virtualization route because, he says, it provides the flexibility to deploy the virtual appliance anywhere while helping simplify deployment of the server roles in Exchange, Office Communications Server (OCS) and Windows Server 2008. Azaleos offers a virtualized Exchange appliance running on VMware. “This is a dramatic simplification, but the virtualization technology delivers benefits across the board to IT organizations,” says McCall.