Microsoft Watch - Messaging & Collaboration - Exchange Starts Office 2010 Testing Cycle

Microsoft Watch - Messaging & Collaboration - Exchange Starts Office 2010 Testing Cycle: "Exchange Starts Office 2010 Testing Cycle


News Analysis. Tomorrow, Microsoft plans to release Exchange Server 2010 Beta 1 ahead of supporting Office System software.

For enterprises looking for better e-mail anytime, anywhere and on anything, Exchange Server 2010 promises much. My eWEEK Labs colleague Jim Rapoza has posted a review and slide show of Beta 1. His overall reaction is encouraging.
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Microsoft plans to make Exchange 2010 available for download on April 15. The public beta is coming well ahead of Office 14, which is now officially Office 2010 (are you really surprised about that?). But Microsoft is at least a quarter from releasing an Office 2010 'technical preview.' A broadly available public beta would be atypical for Office, but called for. Office 2010 will be a tough sell, I predict, because Version 2007 offers so many usability improvements. Better then to get customers testing as soon as possible. Microsoft will release 32-bit and 64-bit Office versions, which perhaps is one reason why the beta lags behind Exchange 2010.
My guess, if Microsoft is smart: Office 2010 will become available to testers around the time Windows 7 releases to manufacturing. Microsoft could still capitalize on synergies between the application suite and operating system, even if they release a year apart. Many enterprises will wait 12 months before beginning Windows 7 deployments, which is still enough for Office 2010 to release later but be deployed simultaneously. For most organizations, the operating system would require more testing and application certification than the productivity suite."