Exchange Edge Product Cancelled

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.