"This is the culmination of three years of planning, designing, building and testing," Stern said. "We had the most stringent criteria to date to ensure a great experience for the IT pro all the way to the end user who is accessing Exchange."
Microsoft, of Redmond, Washington, is keen on getting Exchange 5.5 users to upgrade. A host of upgrade tools are included with Exchange Server 2003 to help customers move up, Stern said. Microsoft estimates that between 40 percent and 60 percent of its Exchange customers still runs Exchange 5.5 on the Windows NT 4.0 platform.
Support for Exchange 5.5 will be available through the end of the year; after that a customer will have to buy extended support if needed, Stern said.
Exchange Server 2003 runs on Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003, so customers running NT 4.0 also have to upgrade their operating environment when moving to a newer e-mail server. Some of the features of Exchange Server 2003, such as eight-node clustering and volume shadow copy services, are not supported when used with Windows 2000.
It makes sense for Exchange 5.5 users to upgrade soon after Exchange Server 2003 comes out, IDC's Levitt said.
"It is a no-brainer to do that within six to nine months. Now is the time that Exchange 5.5 is beginning to show its age and it will eventually no longer be supported," he said.
Exchange 2000 Server was released in October 2000. Around 130 million client licenses have been sold so far, Stern said. Exchange competes with products including Lotus Notes from IBM.
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