By Peter Pawlak [bio]
Posted: Feb. 19, 2007

The following an excerpt of a Research Report published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

Contributing Analysts: Greg DeMichillie and Rob Horwitz

Exchange Server 2007 and Outlook 2007, released Nov. 2006, mark the first major upgrade of Microsoft's e-mail platform in nearly four years. Besides enhancing existing capabilities, Microsoft added features to increase system availability, lower cost of ownership, improve access for mobile users, simplify compliance with legal records retention requirements, and consolidate voice mail and e-mail into a single system. While many Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007 features will pique the interest of organizations, upgrading to Exchange 2007 is not as simple as upgrading from Exchange 2000 to 2003, and some of the new capabilities impose additional licensing costs—even for customers covered by Software Assurance contracts.

This report provides CIOs, solution architects, and Microsoft partners with a comprehensive introduction to evaluating Exchange Server 2007 and Outlook 2007 and planning their deployment. The report describes the products' new unified messaging, mobility, spam blocking, calendaring, security, scalability, availability, manageability, and regulatory compliance capabilities. It also summarizes the APIs Exchange 2007 offers developers and presents an overview of the products' packaging, pricing, and licensing.