History of Microsoft Exchange Server

rdf:langString History of Microsoft Exchange Server

rdf:langString The history of Microsoft Exchange Server begins with the first Microsoft Exchange Server product - Exchange Server 4.0 in March 1996 - and extends to the current day. Microsoft had sold a number of email products before Exchange. Microsoft Mail v2.0 (written by Microsoft) was replaced in 1991 by "Microsoft Mail for PC Networks v2.1", based on Network Courier, which Microsoft had acquired. When the original version of Exchange Server was sold to the public, it was positioned as an upgrade to Microsoft Mail 3.5. Exchange Server was an entirely new X.400-based client–server mail system with a single database store that also supported X.500 directory services. During its development, Microsoft migrated their own internal email from a XENIX-based system to Exchange Server from April 1993, with all 32,000 Microsoft mailboxes on Exchange by late 1996. The directory used by Exchange Server eventually became Microsoft's Active Directory service, an LDAP-compliant directory service. Active Directory was integrated into Windows 2000 as the foundation of Windows Server domains.