Exchange 2010 is available!!

Today at the Microsoft Tech•Ed Europe 2009
conference in Germany, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen
Elop announced that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is now available
worldwide to help businesses reduce costs, protect communications and
delight e-mail users. Along with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2,
Exchange Server 2010 is part of a generation of solutions designed for
increased business productivity and cost savings.

In
today’s challenging economic environment, innovative use of new
information technologies can result in improved operational efficiency
and reduced costs. The combination of cost savings coupled with
improved productivity and innovation is defined as “the New
Efficiency.”

Elop also announced the
release of Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, which helps
Exchange Server customers further safeguard business information.

“Exchange
Server 2010 customers are already reporting cost savings of up to 70
percent thanks to a simplified high-availability model and support for
lower-cost storage. Customers are also seeing productivity gains of
more than 20 percent with a universal inbox that delivers e-mail, voice
mail, instant messaging and text messaging consistently across
virtually any device,” Elop said. “Together with Windows 7 and Windows
Server 2008 R2, the combined cost savings and improved productivity
helps customers generate long-term business success.”

According
to a commissioned study of technology early adopters conducted by
Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft Corp., a customer can see a
payback period of less than six months when upgrading to either
Exchange Server 2010* or Windows Server 2008 R2.**

Per MS Press note reports, Customers
such as Bank of America Corp., Carnival Cruise Line, Global Crossing,
Lifetime Products, Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., NEC Philips, Subaru
Canada Inc. and Telekom Austria Group are deploying Exchange Server
2010 and report impressive results with the new server.

“We
have increased storage eightfold at 25 percent of the cost with
Exchange Server 2010 and our employees are seeing a reduction of
unwanted e-mail by more than 70 percent, freeing us up to focus on more
important client issues,” said Steve Derbyshire, operations director,
NEC Philips.

Organizations including
Automatic Data Processing Inc., BMW, Baker Tilly, the City of Miami,
Energizer, Getronics and Pella Corp. are deploying Windows 7 and report
gains in efficiency for both business users and IT. Customers report
improved user productivity and easier information access, reduced costs
with streamlined management, and reduced risk through better security
and increased desktop control. Supporting detail is available in recent
total cost of ownership studies and analyst survey reports at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/windows-7/default.aspx.

Businesses
are seeing equally significant results from Windows Server 2008 R2,
with customers including Continental Airlines Inc. (U.S.), Chester Zoo
(U.K.), Combell Group NV (Belgium), FinPro (Finland), Wacom Europe GmbH
(Germany) and Wortell (Netherlands) noting cost savings through server
consolidation, reduced power consumption and improved service levels.

“With
Windows Server 2008 R2, we’ve been able to dramatically reduce costs in
our IT infrastructure while simplifying management,” said Phil Morris,
IT manager, North England Zoological Society/Chester Zoo. “By
virtualizing our environment with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, we
have reduced the number of servers in our environment by 80 percent
while maintaining the high availability our retail staff, researchers
and management team need.”

“Windows Server
2008 R2 brings many efficiencies to our customers, including enabling
new virtualization scenarios,” said Bill Laing, corporate vice
president for the Windows Server and Solutions Division at Microsoft.
“We’ve added the next generation of hypervisor and the new ability to
perform Live Migration of virtual machines. Many customers are already
seeing tangible results since deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 with
Hyper-V.”

Elop said more than 45,000 partners
are trained on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010, with
several partners announcing new services and solutions today, including
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Avanade, Dell Inc., EMC Corp., Kaspersky
Lab, Symantec Corp. and Unisys Corp.

Exchange Server 2010 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange are available now for trial at https://www.thenewefficiency.com, along with more information about Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and partner solutions.

Ongoing Commitment to Developers and IT Professionals

As
part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to providing developers and IT
professionals with the technology to drive productivity gains within
their organizations, the following announcements also were also made
today at Tech•Ed Europe 2009.

The community technology preview for SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available for download at https://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx.

For
use in building multilanguage Web sites and client applications,
Microsoft Translator widgets and APIs are now in beta. Many European
languages are now supported by Microsoft Translator. Additional details
can be found at https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9694254.

Microsoft’s
Trustworthy Computing Group will release new guidance that extends the
full Security Development Lifecycle process to a wider external
software developer audience, by enabling developers using the Agile
development model to integrate Microsoft’s SDL processes, tools and
technologies directly into their software development environments,
helping to ensure their applications are secure and their customers
have a safer, more trusted computing experience.

Per Rajesh Jha, "...we've successfully scaled Exchange 2010 to more than
15 million Outlook Live accounts around the world and, moving forward,
to millions more with Exchange Online. Our promise to deliver a
seamless Exchange experience on premises with the server, in the cloud
as a service or a combination of the two truly gives customers choice
and peace of mind.

You can see more customer results from the case studies published today, read about the launch in press coverage, hear from MBD President Stephen Elop in his TechEd Europe keynote launching Exchange 2010 and this evening at the Exchange Connections conference in Las Vegas in my keynote.

I
know many of you are already underway with your Exchange 2010
deployments and many more will be starting today. The Exchange Server
2010 bits are available for download
now. As always, keep the feedback coming. Listening to customers and
partners is how the team has made Exchange the premier e-mail solution
across the globe and that's the way we intend to keep it..."

Nice to hear from geeks...