MSFT: Public Betas of Exchange Server 2007 And Forefront Security for Exchange Server Released

Microsoft Corp. today announced availability of the public betas of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 and the new Forefront Security for Exchange Server. Exchange Server 2007 builds on the leading e-mail, messaging and calendaring server with new features for improved security, remote and mobile access, compliance management, and unified messaging. Forefront Security for Exchange Server helps provide advanced protection against viruses, worms and spam, and is the first product available under the recently announced Microsoft Forefront brand for business security products.
Exchange Server 2007 beta 2 is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/beta2, and Forefront Security for Exchange Server beta can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/serversecurity/exchange/download-beta.mspx.
“Today we enter the home stretch of delivering an unparalleled messaging solution, providing our customers with a cost-effective way to meet their most challenging messaging needs including compliance management and protection against constantly evolving security threats,” said Dave Thompson, corporate vice president of the Exchange Business Unit at Microsoft. “In conjunction with Exchange Server 2007, Forefront Security for Exchange will provide our customers with the advanced anti-virus and anti-spam protection needed in today’s world.”

Exchange Server 2007
The feature-complete Exchange Server 2007 beta 2 is a milestone toward general product availability scheduled for late 2006 or early 2007. This version of Exchange Server includes several new enhancements, including advanced built-in protection to improve e-mail reliability, management tools that help reduce the cost of running messaging environments, new mobility features, and unified messaging capabilities.
Exchange Server 2007 beta 2 delivers the following:
• Built-in protective technologies enable confidential business communications while helping to meet compliance regulations.
• Increased productivity for employees is enabled by anywhere access to e-mail, voice mail, calendars and contacts from a variety of clients and devices.
• New levels of operational efficiency are possible through capabilities that optimize hardware and networking investments and features that help increase productivity for administrators.
As part of Microsoft’s global efforts, Exchange Server 2007 will support 11 languages, including new support for Brazilian Portuguese and Russian. Language support in Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access has also been increased; its support for 47 languages is nearly double that previously offered.


Forefront Security for Exchange Server
Forefront Security for Exchange Server is the next generation of Microsoft Antigen for Exchange, which was released to market in early June. Forefront Security for Exchange Server integrates with Exchange Server 2007 to provide advanced protection, optimized performance and centralized management, helping customers deploy and maintain a secure messaging environment.
The Forefront Security for Exchange Server beta delivers the following:
• Advanced protection against viruses, worms, phishing and other threats by utilizing up to five anti-virus engines simultaneously at each layer of the messaging infrastructure
• Optimized performance through coordinated scanning across edge, hub and mail servers and features such as in-memory scanning, multithreaded scanning processes and performance bias settings
• Centralized management of remote installation, engine and signature updating, reporting and alerts through the Forefront Server Security Management Console
“We are evaluating Exchange Server 2007 for its unified messaging, built-in security, and management capabilities, and we are simultaneously evaluating the new Forefront for Exchange Server product to provide the critical layer of security and protection from viruses and spam.” said Brandt Faatz, executive director of End-User Services, Hewlett-Packard IT.


Product Availability
General availability for Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Security for Exchange Server is scheduled for late 2006 or early 2007. Both products will be available through Microsoft’s Volume Licensing program and worldwide partner channel. Forefront Security for Exchange Server will be available as a stand-alone product or as part of the Exchange Enterprise Client Access License package. More information about Exchange Server 2007 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview/default.mspx. Additional information about Forefront Security for Exchange Server can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/forefront.