Integration of WWS and Exchange 2000

The latest version of Exchange relies heavily upon Microsoft’s WWS Web server for all its protocol processing and for some of the performance improvement in the latest version of OWA. In addition, WWS supports a new protocol, WebDAV, that allows the Exchange/WWS server to act as a “file server” for WebDAV-aware clients such as Office 2000. The tight integration of WWS, Exchange 2000, and Windows 2000 strengthens Microsoft’s position in a network application marketplace that is rapidly transitioning from a Win32-client/server architecture to a Web-based architecture.

Microsoft has responded to this market shift by adjusting its Windows Distributed interNet Applications Architecture (Windows DNA) so that applications originally developed for Win32 can be ported to WWS. For example, the new OWA client that runs as a Web-based application on Exchange 2000/IIS 5.0 is a close approximation of the Win32 version of Outlook. This “port” of Outlook from Win32 to Exchange/WWS should minimize training issues for customers who offer OWA to their telecommuting employees who currently use Outlook 2000 on the standard corporate desktop.