Microsoft Corporation began its Microsoft Exchange Conference in Boston
Thursday with keynote address by general manager Brian Valentine, who wowed
the crowd with information about Exchange Server 6.0, code-named
"Platinum." According to Valentine, Exchange Server 6.0 will ship sometime
in 1999, after Windows NT 5.0 ships, and scale higher while supporting more
users per server. Exchange 6.0 will also feature failover and load
balancing capabilities. It is unclear at this time whether Exchange 6.0
will even run on Windows NT 4.0 because of the number of NT 5.0 features
that it takes advantage of.
"We're not confused on which platform we run on," Valentine said. "There is
nothing in NT [5.0] that we are not going to support."
The Exchange Server 6.0 Directory will support two-way replication with the
NT 5.0 Active Directory. Scripting via the Windows Scripting Host, a
VBScript or JavaScript environment, will also be supported.
Exchange 6.0 will also integrate more tightly with Office 2000's Outlook
component as a client. Outlook 2000 will feature a new "find public folder"
capability, great replication options including one-key synchronization,
and an integrated Internet Explorer 5.0 Web browser. With Exchange 6.0 on
the back-side and Outlook 2000 as the client, users will be able to easily
build basic collaboration applications.
Microsoft will also include an upgrade Wizard that will convert Lotus Notes
applications to Exchange public folders.