Microsoft on Friday finished development on a new version of its Exchange messaging server a week after the company celebrated its launch alongside significant new releases of the Windows client OS and Microsoft Office.

The company said it has shipped Exchange Server 2007 to manufacturing.

Additional information and technical resources about the software are available at the Exchange website and the TechNet website. Microsoft Exchange team members also have written about Exchange 2007 on the team’s blog.

Security, the mobile workforce, and regulatory and policy compliance are three areas where Microsoft has made enhancements in Exchange 2007.

In the security realm, new built-in protection features include the ability for customers to purchase either on-premise antivirus software or a hosted version. As part of a new enterprise Client Access License (CAL) for the product, customers can purchase Microsoft’s Antigen for Exchange antivirus software or Exchange Hosted Filtering services bundled with the Exchange CAL.

For compliance, Microsoft provides the ability to set e-mail folder policies in Exchange to support compliance across the organization. For example, server administrators can set up policies to prevent employees from different groups in the company—brokers and financial analysts, for example—from exchanging e-mail. Administrators also can set up policies that automatically archive e-mail messages pertaining to certain topics, or automatically delete other e-mails.

The new software also will allow users to send encrypted mail among servers running the product. Previously, extra setup had to be done for this to happen.

For the mobile worker, Exchange 2007 allows users to search through a greater number of e-mails on devices. The new software also will allow a remote user, even without administrator privileges, to wipe all Exchange Server-fed data from a device if it is lost or stolen.

-Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service (New York Bureau)

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.