The current version, Exchange Server 2019, was released in October 2018. The directory used by Exchange Server eventually became Microsoft's Active Directory service, an LDAP-compliant directory service which was integrated into Windows 2000 as the foundation of Windows Server domains.Īs of 2020, there have been ten releases. Microsoft had sold a number of simpler email products before, but the first release of Exchange (Exchange Server 4.0 in April 1996 ) was an entirely new X.400-based client–server groupware system with a single database store, which also supported X.500 directory services. Main article: History of Microsoft Exchange Server In the on-premises form, customers purchase client access licenses (CALs) as SaaS, Microsoft charges a monthly service fee instead. The standard SMTP protocol is used to communicate to other Internet mail servers.Įxchange Server is licensed both as on-premises software and software as a service (SaaS). This was discontinued in favor of Microsoft Outlook.Įxchange Server primarily uses a proprietary protocol called MAPI to talk to email clients, but subsequently added support for POP3, IMAP, and EAS.

Until version 5.0, it came bundled with an email client called Microsoft Exchange Client. Exchange initially used the X.400 directory service but switched to Active Directory later.

The first version was called Exchange Server 4.0, to position it as the successor to the related Microsoft Mail 3.5. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems. Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft.

Exchange server 2016