As TechEd 2006 gets underway in Boston Monday, Exchange Server 2007 has taken center stage as a primary enabler for Microsoft's "People Ready" vision for businesses. The upcoming release of Exchange will serve to keep employees connected when on the go, and act as a unified messaging server.

Exchange 2007 will handle e-mail, calendaring, faxes and even voicemail. Through integration with Exchange Server, Outlook 2007 users can access e-mail and even reschedule meetings over the phone. Users can also listen voicemail messages directly from within Outlook.

A lot of work on Exchange 2007 has been focused on administrative tools. The new release has been componentized and administrators can choose to install only the pieces they need. Exchange will be able to automatically detect and configure end-user systems.

Along with Office 2007, the next release of Windows Mobile will also closely integrate with Exchange 2007. While Microsoft is not yet publicly talking about the upgrade, code-named Photon, the company is testing alpha builds internally with the new Exchange Server.

"New mobile features and additional functionality in Exchange Server 2007 are designed to address this pain point, and include ability to search on a device, self-service remote device wipe, support for HTML mail, message flagging, document access and improved meeting request handling," explained Terry Myerson, general manager of the Exchange Server group.

Beta 2 of Exchange Server 2007 is set for July, with a final launch slated for late 2006 or early 2007. The release will coincide with the debuts of both Windows Vista and Office 2007, as well as Microsoft's new line of Forefront security products.