The 64-bit Exchange server released includes new, integrated e-mail archive functionality; text previews of voice mail; a new “Conversation View” feature; customizable call-routing menus; and a “MailTips” feature designed to help stamp out e-mail “faux pas.” It also includes a newly renamed version of Outlook Web Access that works with a variety of browsers.

The Economical aspects of new version are many as it can be used with less expensive attached storage devices rather than SANs (storage area networks). Next its ability to take voice mail messages and speech-to-text feature let users read rather than listen. Microsoft has also added an e-mail archiving feature, which eliminates the need for companies to purchase other archiving software.

The new version has other features to make e-mail more manageable, such as conversation threading, the ability to ignore ongoing conversations between co-workers.

It also gives good optimization for storage usage. It uses upto 90 percent and 70 percent less disk IO than Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 respectively thus lowering minimum disk performance requirement significantly. This new Exchange also opens up new, cheaper storage options like desktop-class direct attached storage.

“Exchange Server 2010 customers are already reporting cost savings of up to 70 percent thanks to a simplified high-availability model and support for lower-cost storage. Customers are also seeing productivity gains of more than 20 percent with a universal inbox…,” said Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop.

Microsoft revealed there new Exchange Server 2010 at its Tech Ed Europe Conference where they also launched technology preview for SQL Server 2008 R2 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange.

Windows Server 2008 R2 (WS2008R2) — the server complement to Windows 7 has a lot of unsung features that could be of interest to IT pros, if only they knew about them, company officials said.

The Forefront service is designed to protect on-premise inboxes from spam and malware.

Exchange Server 2010 is designed to work best in conjunction with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 as part of what it calls ‘The new Efficiency’.