Exchange 2010: Another public test build released

My tipsters were a bit overanxious. Microsoft watcher Steven Bink was right: Microsoft has released yet another test build of Exchange Server 2010, before hitting the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) button.

On August 18, Microsoft made available to the public for download the Release Candidate (RC) 1 test build of Exchange 2010. Officials said the product is still on track to ship before the end of calendar 2009, but declined to provide any time table beyond that. (I'm still betting RTM will be sooner, rather than later, given the business-launch events for Windows/Exchange Server 2010 begin in October this year.)

I've heard Microsoft currently is in the midst of deploying Exchange 2010 inside the company. The employee dogfooding of Exchange 2010 should help the Softies swat bugs that show up when the nearly finished product is scaled across tens of thousands of mailboxes. (That's the theory, at least....)

In a new posting on the Microsoft corporate Exchange blog, company officials said that the online-service version of Exchange 2010 is being tested by more than 10 million people worldwide "in the broadest server beta in Microsoft history."

Microsoft also released today for download the RC1 test version of its Forefront Security for Exchange 2010 product. Forefront Security for Exchange is a business security product that is designed to help Exchange users defend against malware and spam.