Microsoft has greatly expanded the number of beta
participants for its new Exchange 12 e-mail server
platform.
The expanded access to the beta will also come with updated
software since Beta 1 started last December.
This update mainly covers ironed out bugs and not new major
features.
Only around 1,500 users had access to the first test release of
Exchange 12, but the latest community technology preview (CTP) will
reach around 200,000 users, said Microsoft.
Exchange 12 is expected to be commercially available in late
2006 or early 2007.
As with the original Beta 1 of the product, the latest CTP has a
continuous data replication feature, which is designed to help
users more easily manage their data.
While the CTP will again be designed for both 32-bit and 64-bit
working, the final commercial version will only work on 64-bit
servers, meaning some users will have to buy new hardware to run
it.
