New Titanium Exchange Server Debuts

Microsoft

Titanium builds on the current Exchange Server 2000 architecture and datastore, adding enhancements for mobile users. Kodiak, the subsequent major release, will take advantage of Microsoft's long-promised Yukon datastore, company executives said.

Customers want a product that will help users be more productive and help administrators keep mail costs down, said Lead Product Manager Chris Baker.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated Titanium and its tight integration with upcoming Office 11 and Outlook 11 mail client Monday at Fusion, held here. Microsoft had previously demonstrated some Outlook 11 perks, including its new three-paned interface, at PC Expo last month.

Unlike the current Outlook mail client, with its "stacked" view of message list atop a preview panel, the revised user interface offers a wider preview pane to the right of the message list.

"We needed to show how we can take some functionality we already have and make it more visible and approachable," Baker said. With Outlook 11, users will be able to highlight messages with color-coded flags denoting priority, he said.

"If you single-click on a message, it gets a red flag for high importance. If you right click, there are other color codes available and you can come up with your own scheme," Baker said.

In addition, Microsoft will, as promised, fold into Titanium capabilities heretofore offered with Mobile Information Server itself so mail administrators can set up links to wireless PDAs and Webphones from their standard mail server.

The company is working to blend offline and online user experiences. If a network connection is lost, the software will rollover to offline mode, Baker said. That part of the Fusion demonstration got the biggest hand.

Titanium, which has been in the works for sometime, will also offer volume shadow copy capabilities, meaning it can take a snapshot of the mail database to a disk to aid in recovery and restart operations should something go awry. Exchange 2000 now relies on traditional tape-backup techniques. This snapshot ability means that operation can be restored faster because the system will have a more current backup version to work from.

Pricing and further details are expected to be disclosed this fall, when the company hosts the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Anaheim in early October.

A beta of Titanium should be available in the fourth quarter, Baker said.

Microsoft is also still toiling away on Yukon, the relational datastore that will form the basis for many future products, as well as Kodiak, the next major release of Exchange Server that will utilize the Yukon store.