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Exchange 2003 SP2 CTP Available

Microsoft posted the Community Technology Preview of Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 last week, bringing the final version of SP2, a bundle of bug fixes and substantial new functionality for the messaging server, one step closer to its expected delivery later this year.

The CTP version of the service pack is available here. The pre-release evaluation version is not supported and is not recommended for production systems.

Improvements in SP2 focus on mobility and security. Some of the new functionality will only work in concert with other pieces of Microsoft-based infrastructure that haven't been delivered, including Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Exchange continued to improve its share of the worldwide e-mail and calendaring market. According to Gartner Dataquest figures released by Microsoft, the company increased revenues by 15.7 percent in 2004 to claim 48 percent of worldwide revenues in enterprise e-mail and calendaring. Market researchers at IDC define Exchange's market slightly differently, as the integrated collaborative environments market. By IDC's calculations, Microsoft Exchange garnered 51 percent of total market revenue worldwide in 2004.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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