Announcing Exchange 14

Posted By: Adam Bomb | Jan 13th @ 2:00 PM | 103,561 Views | 28 Comments

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I recently had the opportunity to meet with KC Lemson and Jim Lucey to talk about Exchange 14. Jim talked in depth about Exchange Labs and how we use that to do large scalability testing of Exchange - we currently host 3.5 Million mailboxes on Exchange Labs. Jim also gives a brief demo of the user experience, showing how you have access to your mail and calendar via Outlook, the browser, or your mobile phone.

This video is the first in a series covering what's new in Exchange 14, check back over the coming months to see what else is new in the product.

Tags: Exchange, exchange 14, exchange labs, Top 10

Rating:

markatcit

Unfortunately, your sneak peek didn't show me anything compelling about Exchange 14; however, I am impressed that you have over a million users on it at this time, and the Beta hasn't even been released yet.

My biggest concerns are integration with BlackBerry and the OWA experience for non-IE browsers. I'm in an educational environment and have a large number of Mac and Linux users, which is not going to change. If they cannot have a good OWA experience, then we have a difficult time "selling" Exchange to the campus.

I am also interested in failover options and geo-clutering options.

Thanks for the blog!

extreme

In reply to Goran Topalovic

#Jan 13th @ 4:02 PM

Thanks for the recommendation. We do try to use a screen capture software such as the free community clips especially for longer screenshot/demos, but it takes quite a bit more editing work and time to record. Also, if you download the high quality WMV file it looks much better. The low quality WMV is what is streamed in the player by default.

Goran Topalovic

In reply to underlig

#Jan 16th @ 9:31 AM

I would not expect anything for the backup, because DPM 2007 SP1 is designed for that purpose. I am using it, and I must say that it is NTBackup on "steroids".

Goran Topalovic

In reply to extreme

#Jan 16th @ 2:53 PM

Yes, the 180 MB file is the only way to see this, but I was hoping for better quality for future clips, where you will show more about GUI interface and other aspects of the E14. I am not expecting 800 MB Mark Russinovich Windows 7 C9 interview, but something similar in size.

Dae Punt

Wow! That video was so bad, I couldn't even read the screen, which was a pity... Do you have HD camera's or *at least* Steady Shot support?

hjmiii

I like some of the add-ons to OWA, but a few things about this intro worry me.

Educational institutions are not good analogues to commercial or governmental agencies. Things that are a side thought in .edu (HIPPA, SOX, e-discovery, etc.) are central to the management of messsaging in corporate environments. These things are missing in Exch 2007, and a big 3rd party market has opened up as a result. In the past things like that were seen as signals to Microsoft about what demand is out there for features.
Will the enhancements to Exchange 14 be all fluff and GUI and no function? The comments on the admin interface seems to indicate that the Exchange team has reversed their direction of doing everything with powershell.

clintboessen

In reply to Goran Topalovic

#Jan 13th @ 4:02 PM

I like powershell in ex2007. I think powershell is the best thing Microsoft have done. Exchange powershell syntax is extremely easy, its just plain english. I have administered linux servers and I tell you, what microsoft have done barely makes me think.

I'd like to see some more insight into the new features of what Exchange 14 offers. Many of the things mensioned in this video are already available in previous versions of the product.

Goran Topalovic

In reply to clintboessen

#Jan 27th @ 8:07 PM

Clint, that is the main issues here. You were Linux admin and I have never installed Linux and I never will. I didn't want to install a server before the Windows 2000 and AD were released, because my choice was GUI not CMD, and during the 90's all the clients wanted Linux for server OS. I wished for 3D user interface in the time when I was assembling PC's and sold them with W95, OK and before that with the DOS.
PowerShell is easy and I agree with you, because I have learned for several years C++, and I know something about the matter. I initially invested in my MS certification not to type scripts and imaging what is going on, but to work in environment like Vista Aero.

My opinion is that, create good PowerShell and build even better GUI on top of it, and let us choose what to use.

BarkOLounger

I would like to hear more detail around the Unified Messaging server improvements and enhancements.