Microsoft Exchange 12 Morphs To Exchange 2007

So Exchange too, is going the 2007 route.

The next release of Microsoft Exchange Server, heretofore known as Exchange 12 (or E12) will officially be Exchange Server 2007, the company said today.

Bob Muglia, Microsoft's senior vice president of the Servers and Tools Business, showed off the product's scriptable command line shell--aka Exchange Management Shell. That technology is based on Monad, which is now apparently going by the moniker Windows PowerShell. Muglia's demo came at the Microsoft Management Summit in San Diego.

The Exchange Management Shell in will be based on PowerShell and will save IT administrators time by allowing routine and repetitive tasks to be automated through a scriptable command line shell, Muglia said.

In addition, Exchange Server 2007, will sport the Exchange Management Console – a graphical console also built'atop MMC 3.0 and PowerShell that will increase administrative productivity through simplified navigation and new filtering capabilities for managing the messaging environment.

Name change notwithstanding, the new Exchange is still due in late 2006/early 2007, a timeframe Microsoft has already announced, a spokeswoman said.

Exchange, once the linchpin of Microsoft's collaboration strategy, has evolved into a "just mail" solution which, when combined with Live Communications Server, Sharepoint and other layers of the Microsoft stack comprises the company's Unified Communications vision.

Exchange itself is still locked in a marketshare war with IBM Domino/Notes and has won a large battle, with consumer goods king Procter and Gamble transitioning tens of thousands of users from Notes/Domino to the Exchange/Outlook/LCS/Sharepoint Microsoft melange.

Microsoft is also re-naming, er renumbering other products.