Users look to Microsoft for future direction of messaging platform.
After Microsoft removed the 2006 Kodiak release of Exchange Server from its product road map earlier this year, its plans for the messaging software have gotten even cloudier, making it more difficult for users to make future plans for the messaging package.
After Microsoft removed the 2006 Kodiak release of Exchange Server from its product road map earlier this year, its plans for the messaging software have gotten even cloudier, making it more difficult for users to make future plans for the messaging package.
In May the company said it would deliver in 2005 an addition to Exchange called Edge Services, an intelligent message transfer agent for the edge of a company’s network that offers security, spam and virus protection. The software maker now is backpedaling on that commitment, which was the only announced release for Exchange beyond 2004.
“We remain very committed to Edge Services,” says Kim Akers, a senior director in Microsoft’s Exchange Server group. But when asked to confirm the stated ship target of 2005, she said “it is premature to talk about timing.”
With no product road map, it is difficult for customers to make licensing decisions and plan upgrades, analysts say. “Microsoft owes it to its customers to specify and deliver more or less on time the products and updates they say are coming,” says Peter Pawlak, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm.
The onus to provide a road map is on Microsoft, Pawlak says, because the company sells customers multi-year licensing contracts that includes Software Assurance, a maintenance program that also covers software updates.
While Microsoft is making it difficult for corporations to anticipate what is coming down the product pipeline, the company is delivering incremental updates to Exchange, says Teney Takahashi, a market analyst at The Radicati Group.
“I think Microsoft is focused on making these small improvements,” he says. “In a perfect world, all of that road map information would be available. Microsoft is taking its time to develop these products right. I think that is more important than offering a road map for five years, although I can understand if corporations are getting frustrated.”
Recently, Microsoft released the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer, a tool to help users fix configuration problems. In May, Microsoft introduced a spam filter for Exchange Server 2003 called Intelligent Message Filter, and earlier this year the vendor released the first Service Pack for Exchange Server 2003.
Philip Colmer, IT manager at ProQuest Information and Learning in Cambridge, England, is happy with the Exchange Server 2003 system he upgraded to at the beginning of the year. Colmer says he is not looking for another upgrade anytime soon.
“I am not too bothered at this point in time that Microsoft has not made any announcements about a new product,” he says. “Nevertheless, customers traditionally do expect road maps from Microsoft.”
A year after releasing Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft heralded the success of the product last week at an Exchange users event in Orlando. However, attendees didn’t hear much about the future of Exchange because Microsoft is not ready to publicly discuss the Exchange road map, including plans for a new version, Akers says.
At the Exchange Connections event the company announced it sold 55% more licenses of Exchange Server 2003 in the first year after its release than it did with predecessor Exchange 2000 Server. The vendor also has had more than 175,000 requests for evaluations of the product, and more than 31,000 people have participated in Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2003 classes.
Still, Microsoft faces a challenge in getting customers to upgrade. The Radicati Group expects the number of Exchange Server 2003 seats won’t exceed the number of Exchange 5.5 or Exchange 2000 seats until the end of 2005, Takahashi says.
Evers is a correspondent with the IDG News Service.
