Microsoft exec talks about Exchange plans

SAN DIEGO -- Microsoft Corp. will dump the "Kodiak" code-name that had been tagged to the next release of Exchange Server e-mail and calendaring product and will deliver functionality that was planned for the release in pieces, the company said at its Tech Ed conference in San Diego.

IDG News Service sat down with David Thompson, a Microsoft corporate vice president who has been in charge of the Exchange Server group since early this year.

Thompson provided more details about the next release of Exchange, which he said could come before the release of a server version of Longhorn in 2007. Longhorn is the next major release of Windows. A client version of Longhorn is expected in 2006. Thompson also discussed how Microsoft plans to incorporate SQL Server database technology in Exchange.

IDGNS: You have some news today about your road map and are changing things a bit. Kodiak will no longer be the next big release of Exchange.

Thompson: We're actually going to stop using the Kodiak name, but there is a set of things that we're still working on and that we will announce in steps.

IDGNS: When you stop using the Kodiak name, doesn't that make it less clear for customers as in when they know the next release will be?

Thompson: Well, as the road map rolls out we will talk about different pieces of it. We will talk about the fact that the Edge Server (Exchange Edge Services), the next major technology, will come next year. So, I think that it is a change for customers if they had in their mind something specific that Kodiak was. What is true about product plans in this business is that they evolve.

IDGNS: If you drop the Kodiak name, is there a new release of Exchange coming up or is there no new release of Exchange?

Thompson: There will be a new release of Exchange. We're not ready to announce when that is or what it is. I will say that our strategy is to be aligned with Outlook and Office because we see ourselves as the best server for Outlook. You can imagine that an alignment there would make sense. We will announce, maybe this fall, the next version of Exchange. Right now what we're talking about is technology directions.

IDGNS: Kodiak was originally planned for, what was it, 2006?

Thompson: I honestly don't know when Kodiak was planned for.

IDGNS: Really?

Thompson: Well, I have been in the group four months and I wasn't involved with setting the Kodiak plan a couple of years ago.

IDGNS: You're saying you're aligning with Office.

Thompson: In fact, this last release (Exchange 2003) was aligned with Office. When I say aligned, typically with a server product we wouldn't necessarily deliver it the same day, we deliver a server product when it is ready, but you align the planning and the timing is approximately right.

IDGNS: The next version of Office is expected after the Longhorn Windows client ships. No date has been announced, but Microsoft has said that there will be a new release of Office in the Longhorn wave of software. So I guess that is when we should expect a new release of Exchange?

Thompson: We would expect a release of Exchange around the time of the next release of Office.