A treasure trove of functionality
Microsoft is doing everything it can to make sure that Windows 2000 (Win2K) Server is successful immediately. Although the skeptical Gartner Group advises clients to wait until 2000 before deploying the new OS, Microsoft plans to lure customers to migrate by making popular applications work well under Win2K Server. One of these applications is a new version of Exchange Server. The messaging system's next major functionality release—code-named Platinum—will run only on Win2K Server. Microsoft hasn't set a firm date for releasing Platinum, but Platinum will come out after Win2K Server.
Platinum will be the most strategic and far-reaching Exchange release since Exchange Server 4.0 debuted in 1996. Exchange Server 5.0 and Exchange Server 5.5 built on the base that Exchange Server 4.0 established. They enhanced and embellished Exchange Server 4.0, but they retained the Exchange Server 4.0 kernel. In contrast, Platinum will include major changes to some of Exchange Server's crucial components. To help you plan for the Platinum-upgrade decision, I'll tell you about some of Platinum's most significant developments.
Goals for Platinum
Microsoft is developing Platinum with four major goals. First, Microsoft wants Exchange Server to be a good Win2K Server citizen and share as many components with the OS as possible. This goal is strategic—it keeps the product in line with Microsoft's overall development plans, which rely on Win2K.
Second, Microsoft plans to make Platinum's code base scale from small servers to ISPs. The next Exchange Server release will supposedly handle organizations ranging from Small Business Server (SBS) configurations that support five users to ISPs that serve millions of users. The largest Exchange Server systems today support 3000 mailboxes, so enabling one Platinum server to support tens of thousands of mailboxes will require extensive changes throughout the product.
Third, Microsoft wants the next Exchange Server to be a better platform for collaboration than previous versions have been. Even the most ardent Exchange admirer must admit that the product's public folders haven't been as successful as Microsoft claimed they would be. To continue to be competitive, Exchange Server needs to evolve to support all the many types of collaboration. Finally, Microsoft wants to incorporate new technologies into Exchange Server, adding support for features such as unified messaging (voicemail) and online conferencing.
Some of Microsoft's goals for Platinum address long-standing customer demands. Other goals, such as the product's dependence on Win2K, are architectural. Still other goals establish a base from which Exchange Server can develop over the next 3 years. Compare Exchange Server 4.0 with Exchange Server 5.5. Their bases are similar, but the end products are very different. Platinum is beginning a similar evolutionary cycle.
Exchange and AD
The most obvious manifestation of Platinum's integration with Win2K Server is Microsoft's integration of the Exchange Directory into Active Directory (AD). In Platinum, all the mailboxes, custom recipients, servers, sites, and other objects that the Directory currently holds will move into the AD store. This change will provide many benefits, including letting administrators manage most of their computing infrastructure's data in one database.
Another benefit is that Exchange Server's use of AD will eliminate record duplication. For example, many companies create Windows NT groups to manage access to resources, then duplicate those groups in Exchange distribution lists. In AD, groups have email addresses, so you can use a group as you would use a distribution list; this functionality will reduce the time you spend setting up and maintaining distribution lists.
AD references objects through globally unique IDs (GUIDs), which don't depend on the object's location within the directory, so you can move objects in the AD store without deleting and recreating them. Therefore, integrating the Exchange Directory into the AD store will eliminate many day-to-day management tasks that the Directory requires, such as moving users or distribution lists between containers. AD reduces network traffic because it replicates data at the attribute level rather than the object level. And AD lets you customize your directory—you can add directory attributes that are unique to your enterprise.
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