Microsoft Updates Its Exchange Roadmap

Microsoft is in some ways one of the most innovative companies on the planet.Though it’s often accused of plagiarizing ideas and of monopoly, one has to admit they often make products that work for the masses very well. One of the largest developments of the last 20 years has been the Internet. It has brought information to your fingertips. One of the side developments but no less important has been the advent of Voice services using the internet as a backbone aka VoIP. In fact it has grown to such extents that every major portal and web related entity has some VoIP product or the other. Microsoft has for long ruled the corporate mail systems and collaborative features market with its Microsoft Exchange Suite. Now looking to capitalize on VoIP, Microsoft has announced its Unified Communication Product Roadmap. The product road map spells out changes to product lines to better integrate voice features with Microsoft’s Exchange Suite. It includes several new capabilities and name changes: Office Communications Server 2007 replaces Live Communications Server and adds presence-based VoIP call management, Web, audio, and videoconferencing to its in-house IM clients. Microsoft has also announced plans to integrate e-mail, instant messaging, voice and video into a single platform. The software, hardware and Web conferencing service are part of a family of products around Office 2007, which is slated to ship in November. Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, a unified communications client for that server, will have a VoIP softphone and Web, audio, and video conferencing.