Availability and Resources

As with Exchange 2000, Exchange Server 2003 comes in two editions: Standard and Enterprise. The difference is basically the same as it was with Exchange 2000 with one exception: the Standard Edition now supports front-end/back-end configurations, in which mailbox/folder storage is done on a dedicated server separate from a farm of servers used to perform network protocol processing (and user interface processing if using OWA or OMA). The Enterprise Edition is still required for clustering, X.400, multiple storage groups, and unlimited data store capacity. Both versions support all the new Exchange 2003 features described in this report, with the exception of 8-node clustering support, which requires Enterprise Edition.

Exchange 2003 will be available in three new localizations-Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, and Korean-in addition to the English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish localizations previously available.

For more information and to download the beta, see www.microsoft.com/exchange.