Microsoft Releases Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1

In addition to supporting Windows Server 2008 and Vista, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 includes deeper integration with Office Communications Server 2007, as well as enhancements to ActiveSync that allow organizations to remotely erase data from mobile devices that are lost or stolen.

Exchange Server 2007 adoption has been slowed somewhat by the major changes Microsoft introduced with the release, as well as by various bugs. But solution providers expect SP1 to convince many organizations that have been in a holding pattern to start upgrading en masse.

Partners are especially jazzed over the return in SP1 of public folders for use with Outlook Web Access. This feature, which allows mobile workers to access shared files, contacts, and tasks while on the road, wasn't included in the original Exchange 2007 release because Microsoft was trying to drive users to Office Sharepoint Server, according to solution providers.

"Public folders is a huge feature for a lot of people and was popular with Exchange 2003," said Dave Grantz, CTO of Exchangemymail.com, an Albertson, N.Y.-based hosted mail provider.

Exchange Server 2007 SP1 also takes care of several software bugs in Exchange 2007 and makes it significantly more stable, said Rurik Bradbury, vice president at Intermedia, a New York-based Exchange hosting partner.

"Microsoft has also fixed issues with multi-tenancy in Exchange 2007. This is important because as hosting Exchange gets bigger, multi-tenancy isn't just what more companies are using, it's also what Microsoft needs to host the service itself," said Bradbury.

Standby continuous replication, a feature that allows Exchange to maintain an updated stand-by server to prevent catastrophic data loss in the event of power failures or natural disasters, is also part of Exchange 2007 SP1.

Microsoft also released the final SP1 of Forefront Security for Exchange Server, which helps secure Exchange Server 2007 environments with content filtering and 8 different threat scanning engines from multiple vendors to block viruses, worms and spam.