An Exchange e-mail gateway product has been cancelled and its features will be rolled into the next major Exchange release, according to Microsoft. Originally planned for 2005, Exchange Edge Services was a product for spam filtering, virus scanning, and other filtering and routing tasks for Internet mail. The decision could disappoint some customers who bought upgrade rights on Exchange.

Closing a Linux Gateway

Originally announced in Feb. 2004, Edge Services was to deliver Exchange components for processing and routing e-mail sent via standard Internet protocols (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP). It would have served as a platform for tasks such as spam filtering and virus scanning, using software supplied by Microsoft or third parties such as Panda, Symantec, or Trend Micro. The goal was to provide an edition of Exchange that would not require connections to a company's Active Directory or mailbox store, allowing it to operate securely even when exposed to the Internet on the "edge" of a company's network. Microsoft also probably hoped that Edge Services could compete with Linux SMTP gateways on price, without cannibalizing the Exchange business.

Edge Services was also to deliver an updated version of Microsoft's Intelligent Message Filtering (IMF) antispam technology, and was to implement Microsoft's SenderID proposal for authenticating e-mail servers.

No Major Upgrades in 2005

Now, Microsoft plans to deliver an IMF update and SenderID for Exchange Server 2003 in Service Pack 2 (SP2), due in late 2005. An additional IMF update might arrive separately in early 2005, before SP2.

The company still plans to offer an SMTP gateway component in the next major release of Exchange, currently planned for the second half of 2006. That release will probably continue the trend begun with Exchange 2000 and offer several other separately installable components for functions such as mailbox storage and browser access to mailboxes. However, Microsoft has not revealed any detailed plans for Exchange's next release.

The new roadmap means there will be no major upgrades for customers who bought upgrade rights on Exchange in late 2001 and early 2002, when many signed three-year Software Assurance and Enterprise Agreements. Those customers will probably have to commit to an additional three years if they want upgrade rights to the next version of Exchange. Or, they can wait until it ships and pay full price for new licenses.

The Exchange product Web site is www.microsoft.com/exchange.