Microsoft Exchange 2000 Now Available to Customers and ASPs

DALLAS, Oct. 10, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that the Exchange 2000 product line — Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server and Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server — is now generally available to customers, developers, partners and application service providers (ASPs) worldwide. The announcement was made at the Microsoft® Exchange and Collaboration Solutions Conference 2000 (MEC 2000), where 6,000 customers and partners gathered to discuss ways to take advantage of Exchange 2000 as a platform for messaging, collaboration and business applications. Microsoft Exchange 2000 is the reliable, easy-to-manage platform for messaging and collaboration that brings people and knowledge together.

With more than 250,000 seats of Exchange 2000 already in production today, it is the most thoroughly customer-tested server application in Microsoft history. Customers are deploying Exchange 2000 with the confidence that it will meet their most demanding needs.

Immediate IT Benefits

“Customers upgrading to Exchange 2000 see immediate benefits such as improved scalability, reliability and manageability,”
said Gordon Mangione, vice president of the Exchange Business Unit at Microsoft.
“Since our own deployment of it, we have reduced the number of servers that host our 30,000 Redmond users from 35 to eight, while tripling average users per server to 3,000 and doubling the mailbox size.”

Nabisco Inc. used the Rapid Economic Justification (REJ) framework, audited by Giga Information Group, to analyze the financial benefits of improved communication and more efficient IT resource utilization by using Exchange 2000. This economic analysis demonstrated that Nabisco anticipates the following benefits:

  • A server consolidation rate of 25 percent made possible by Exchange 2000’s support for multiple messaging databases on a single server and active/active clustering

  • A 20 percent improvement in IT resource utilization arising from a single point of management for all user information and messaging resources with the Windows® 2000 Active Directory™
    service and Microsoft Management Console

  • An expected increase in system availability enabled by porting the mission-critical retail ordering system to Exchange 2000

“Upgrading to Exchange 2000 is a wise financial move from the perspective of increasing revenue as well as saving money through better IT systems management,”
said Buddy Fiume, vice president of Enterprise Technology for Nabisco.
“The REJ gives us a framework to model the financial value of IT products within the context of our overall business.”

New Forms of Communication for Knowledge Workers

Exchange 2000 also delivers new ways for knowledge workers to communicate, make rapid decisions and collaborate across geographic and time boundaries without leaving their desks. The following are among the new features and enhancements for Exchange 2000:

  • Instant messaging with presence information enables knowledge workers to see if their colleagues are online, out of the office or busy and lets them send ad hoc communications, opening up new avenues for business responsiveness.

  • Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server enables knowledge workers to schedule, manage and participate in multiparty voice, video and data conferences, making it possible for them to collaborate across different locations and time zones without leaving their desks.

  • The Outlook® Web Access client gives users convenient access to e-mail, appointments and contacts from any Internet-connected PC. Enhancements include additional Outlook behaviors such as drag-and-drop capability and improvements by tenfold in scalability and performance.

  • An extended platform for unified messaging makes possible a single inbox for the management of all important business communications including e-mail, voice mail and fax. Exchange 2000 also supports voice profile for Internet messaging (VPIM), enabling interoperability between separate voice mail systems.

“The staff and students of the University of Texas Graduate School of Business have found Exchange 2000 to be great at doing two things: connecting users to users, and connecting users to knowledge. It has proven to be very effective in managing knowledge and communities,”
said Larry Liebrock, associate dean and chief technology officer, The Business School at the University of Texas.
“We are particularly impressed with Outlook Web Access. Our students and staff are able to communicate wherever their busy schedules take them. As students tend to lead active lives, it acts as a window to access university resources, increasing their productivity.”

To date, there are more than 12,000 technical specialists ready to help customers plan, pilot and deploy Exchange 2000. All Exchange 2000 Global Launch Partners – companies including Avaya Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and Xerox Corp. – have dedicated practices and services for Exchange 2000. Additional information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/thirdparty/gap_platinum.htm .

Exchange 2000 Hosting Pack Released to Leading ASPs

Microsoft today also issued the Exchange 2000 Hosting Pack to selected ASPs. An extension to Exchange 2000, the Hosting Pack provides a set of provisioning services that enhance the manageability of hosted Exchange servers, including tools to do the following:

  • Automate the process of registering users and provide ASP customers with self-service provisioning and management capabilities via the Web

  • Manage system resources and automatically allocate them to customers and users

  • Enforce security to prevent users from improperly accessing resources

  • Log service provisioning for billing purposes

ASPs and ISVs are able to customize and extend the Hosting Pack services to their business and operational needs. Leading operational support and billing ISVs such as Xevo Corp., Portal Software Inc. and abridean Inc. are today announcing their support for the Hosting Pack. General availability is targeted for the first half of calendar year 2001.

Exchange 2000 has the broadest ASP support of any leading messaging and collaboration server. To date, more than 40 ASPs, including Cable and Wireless plc, Data Return Corp., DIGEX Inc., FutureLink Corp. and USinternetworking Inc., are delivering hosted services on the Microsoft Exchange platform. Exchange 2000 also serves as the foundation for the business
e-mail services provided as part of the Microsoft bCentral™
Business Web Services. This broad adoption by ASPs reflects Exchange 2000’s ability to meet the high levels of scalability and reliability required for hosted solutions.

“Exchange 2000 is a cornerstone product in the Qwest Apptimum platform,”
said Kevin Kosche, vice president at Qwest Communications International Inc.
“It allows us to offer MCSPs and systems integrators a rich, robust environment by which to host collaborative applications. By combining Exchange 2000 with our applications running on Apptimum, our partners can now offer high-value, fully integrated ASP collaborative services to their customers.”

Solution Developers Lauded

Developers are also reaping the rewards of Exchange 2000 and its flexible native XML Web Storage System. More than 130 development partners representing 160 products have submitted their applications for the first-ever MEC Solutions Awards. The awards are given to companies that build innovative business solutions using the Web Storage System. Winners were announced today at MEC 2000 and can be found in the virtual press kit at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mec00/presskits.asp .

Several of the award nominees, including Triangle, aimware and ASCENDANT, are participants in the Lotus Business Partner program and are now making business investments in the Exchange 2000 platform.

“Exchange 2000 has exceeded our expectations. The Web Storage System is allowing us to rapidly develop solutions using our existing skills,”
said Jim Chapman, CEO of Triangle, three-time Lotus Beacon Award winner, a Lotus Premium Partner and announced today as a MEC Solutions Award winner.
“We see a large and growing business opportunity with our customers constantly asking that we support Exchange 2000 with our solutions.”

Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server and Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server are available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Evaluation versions of Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server and Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server are available at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/productinfo/eval.htm .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft, Windows, Active Directory, Outlook and bCentral are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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