Redmond (WA) – Microsoft this morning unveiled the name for the upcoming version of Exchange and Office, both of which will sport the “2010” label. No surprises here and even the new features for the new mail software are not really revolutionary from the view that Microsoft promises that the software, will, once again, make you much more productive than you are today. For example by giving you a tool to reduce “spam” by cutting yourself from those email threads you don’t care for.
Microsoft is giving IT administrators an early view at Exchange 2010 with a public and fully functional beta that was released today. Scheduled for a final release in the second half of this year (a public beta of Office 2010 is planned for H2 2009 with the final release currently expected for H1 2010), the software focuses on lower communications costs, more user productivity and a new e-mail archiving feature.
According to Microsoft, email archiving will support companies to address legal and e-discovery concerns with an integrated e-mail archive. The new solution makes it easier to store and query e-mail across the organization using the Exchange software that organizations already know and use, the company said.
From a user perspective, new productivity-focused features make up the lion’s share will help you stay in touch with your email even more than you are already today. The mail client outlook will have consistent look and functionality across different platforms such as the PC, cellphone or a browser. You will be able to ignore conversations that irrelevant to you, you can combine multiple related email messages into one message, get text previews of voice mail and create call answering rules.
There is also a new feature that will warn users before they send emails to large distribution groups, to recipients who are out of the office or to recipients outside the organization, helping protect against information leaks and reduce unnecessary e-mail messages, Microsoft said.
Microsoft said that Exchange 2010 is the first product to be introduced as part of the next wave of Microsoft Office-related products. This wave will include Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010.
