Microsoft Upgrading Exchange, Outlook

Microsoft Corp. will introduce a new version of its Exchange messaging server next year, codenamed Titanium, that will feature an improved Outlook client and integrated Microsoft Mobile Information Server technology chief among its features.

Titanium, due for release in mid-2003 according to Microsoft Exchange product manager Chris Baker, will include the Outlook 11 client. This version will feature an updated user interface, which will be divided into three vertical columns, similar to a newspaper layout, Baker said.

Those columns will display, left-to-right, list of folders, the Inbox, and the preview pane.

Other new features in Outlook 11 will include improved capabilities for organizing and categorizing messages as well as improvements in the ability to flag messages for future action and to search for those messages. The Outlook upgrade will also feature the ability to switch to offline mode when disconnected without having to close out of Outlook and re-open the application.

"We want to give our users an improved user experience," said Baker, in Redmond, Wash.

Titanium will also include Microsoft's Mobile Information Server, known as MIS, integrated at the server level, plans Microsoft first indicated in February. Exchange and MIS will share the server and the same set of schema updates, according to Baker. MIS is currently a separate product which requires extensive integration before it can deliver mobile capabilities to Exchange. In Titanium, the products would be integrated "out of the box," allowing for easier integration and less demands of server overhead, Baker said.

Read on for more features of Titanium. Click here for the eWeek story.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.