Microsoft have made a final release candidate version of Exchange 2010 available for public testing, available for 120-day trial from the Microsoft web site - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/dd185495.aspx

In this article I shall look at the new features that Exchange 2010 will offer from a mobile perspective. For full details of the new features available, visit the Microsoft Exchange web site - http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/overview.aspx

Installation

Whilst not suitable for production environments, should you want to install the release candidate yourself on a test server to run through the new features, the procedure I ran through was as follows:

• Download and install a trial copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, available from the Microsoft web site - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx
  NOTE - Exchange 2010 will only install on Windows Server 2008 64-bit
• Assign the server name and a fixed local IP address, set the primary DNS server to the localhost address
• Install the Active Directory Domain Services role. Once complete, run DCPromo.exe and create a new domain controller in a new forest
• Add the Web Server role using the default options
• Add the Application Server role using the default options. A reboot will be required at this point
• Install the Microsoft Office 2007 Filter Pack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=123380), required for web document viewing in OWA
• Install the Windows Desktop Experience (listed under "Server Features"), required for the Exchange Unified Messaging role (as it includes the Windows Media Audio Codec). A reboot will be required.
• Add the Certificate Services role using the default options
• Set the startup type for the "Net.TCP Port Sharing Service" to Automatic

You should now be ready to run the Exchange 2010 installation wizard. The options available during the installation process are fairly minimal: the server roles to be installed can be selected; if the Client Access Server role is selected, the external name of the web application can be defined:

Once complete, the new features available include the following.

Outlook Web Access (Webmail)

OWA is now referred to as the "Outlook Web App" and now provides full support for Firefox and Safari, meaning that Mac users can enjoy the same web experience as Windows users, and Windows users don’t have to use Internet Explorer if they don’t want to and still have access to right click context menus and advanced functionality:

The slight change in name is not merely an exercise in "marketing-eze", however. The Outlook Web App is precisely that: an application providing a similar level of functionality to that offered by the full Microsoft Office Outlook product, accessible from a wide range of web browsers.

Within OWA, users can search their whole mailbox for specific messages from within their web browser:

Users have access to a much wider range of options and settings within the Options view of OWA (which itself runs in a new web application within IIS on the Exchange server called the "Exchange Control Panel", or ECP), including the ability to edit their own contact information and have it updated directly to the Global Address List (GAL):

Exchange Administrators, when logging into OWA, have the option to view the settings for their own mailbox, another user's mailbox, or global settings pertaining to the organisation:

This view allows the administrator to perform routine tasks such as adding, removing and amending user accounts and distribution groups. When editing user accounts, administrators can edit such detail as contact information as well as primary email address details.
A new feature introduced in Exchange 2010 is "Mail Tips": this feature displays informational messages to users as they compose new mail messages. For example, if sending an email to a user who has their out of office enabled, when that recipient is added to the email message, you will be informed that the user is out of office - this may save you the bother of writing a long email only to have it bounced:

Similarly, you will be warned when sending an email to a user whose mailbox is full and cannot accept new mail; or when replying to an email on which you were originally BCC'd and also when when sending an email to a large distribution group (such as Global Everyone) - just in case you don't mean to tell the whole international company that someone's left their lights on in the car park!

Custom Mail Tips can also be defined on individual mailboxes by the administrator:

Full Exchange Administrators can define other administrative access roles and the scope of those roles' permissions:

This is useful for the administrator with a view to the ability to perform administrative tasks remotely via a web interface without the need to establish a separate VPN connection to the network, but also a means of providing access to the Exchange server's configuration pages to a helpdesk environment without providing access to the Exchange server itself or the full management console.

Users can add and remove access to shared address books and calendars via OWA, and arrange calendars in a "side-by-side" view for quick schedule checking:

Messages can be viewed in a "Conversation View", grouping messages in a single conversation thread together regardless of sender or date. Messages can also be forwarded as attachments to other messages:

I haven't tested this functionality myself yet, but if the Office Communicator Server (OCS) product is deployed within the organisation, Exchange 2010 OWA also features an instant messaging client application that integrates with OCS enabling users to quickly view the status of connected users and send and receive instant text messages directly from their web browser.

The features that users have access to within OWA can be enabled and disabled by the administrator via the "Segmentation" option that was introduced in Exchange 2007, but unlike 2007 where settings are global, in 2010 OWA profiles can be defined and applied on a per-user or per-group basis:

Windows Mobile 6.1

Exchange 2010 offers the same mailbox synchronisation and device management features as Exchange 2007 when used with Windows Mobile client devices running version 6.1 or later of the Windows Mobile operating system, and as with Exchange 2007, Server ActiveSync mailbox policies can be defined and applied on a per-user or per-group basis. These features include:

• Password enforcement
• Synchronisation size limits
• Hardware control
• Software control
• Remote file share access

Windows Mobile 6.5

When Windows Mobile 6.5 devices start being released later this year, when used with Exchange 2010 the following additional features will also be available...allegedly, I hope to be able to test this very soon as sample units start coming in...so watch this space!

• Display email messages in conversation view
• Define synchronisation rules for whole 'conversations' (ie do not sync, delete, move to folder, etc)
• Synchronise SMS text message folders with your Exchange mailbox (and thence to Microsoft Outlook and OWA)
• Support for Message Reply status - if you reply to an email within Outlook or via OWA rather than on your Windows Mobile device, this will still be reflected on the Windows Mobile device and indicated by the message icon
• Support for Free/Busy status, enabling you to view at a glance whether a contact is in a meeting or on holiday or not

Importantly, Microsoft have also indicated that when Exchange 2010 is released, an updated version of the Outlook Mobile client will also be released which will provide all of the above functionality to devices running Windows Mobile 6.1, not just Windows Mobile 6.5

Unified Messaging

The Unified Messaging server role was introduced in Exchange 2007 and essentially enables your Exchange server to integrate with your VoIP telephone system, providing such functionality as the ability to have voicemail messages delivered to your Inbox as sound file attachments; the ability to dial into the phone system and 'speak' to Exchange - to say a person's name and be connected to their extension based on that person's contact information in the Global Address List; and the ability to dial into your mailbox and have new mail messages read back to you and voicemail messages played.

Exchange 2010 adds the ability for users to create personal auto-attendants for themselves via the OWA interface, creating rules for forwarding calls that are not answered. Voicemail messages can also be transcribed to text and delivered via email so that users don’t need to mess about opening WAV files in Windows Media Player on their device.

Administration

Besides the web administrative view described above, most of the administration of the Exchange server will be done via the Exchange Management Console, which thankfully has not changed significantly since Exchange 2007: