In a surprise move, Microsoft revealed yesterday that the company plans to kill the next major version of Microsoft Exchange Server, code-named Kodiak, and will instead plot a future course of smaller upgrades to Exchange Server 2003. These upgrades will, over time, comprise what would have made up the feature set for Kodiak, which Microsoft originally planned to release in 2005.
  
"We're actually going to stop using the Kodiak name," Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Thompson said. "But there is a set of things that we're still working on and that we will announce in steps. The next major technology, Exchange Server Edge Services, will come next year." Another Kodiak technology, the Microsoft SQL Server-based data store, will probably be postponed until the next major Exchange Server version, now due in the 2006 to 2007 time frame.
  
In addition, Microsoft announced the immediate availability of Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack (SP1), the first major bundled set of security fixes for that product. SP1 also includes the Intelligent Message Filter SmartScreen Technology for filtering spam, an updated antivirus API, and several new administration tools. For more information about the service pack and for the free download, visit the Microsoft Web site.