Few days ago, the Exchange Product made several announcements related to Exchange Server and its future. The overall message throughout these announcements can be interpreted as that Microsoft is publicly declaring to be committed to developing and supporting the Exchange Server product. This is especially of interest to those customers running it as part of their on-premises infrastructure. It is also assuring those that believe the road ahead was a dead end, eventually forcing them to move to Exchange Online, or look for alternatives.

The announcements made were in the area of:

• Lifecycle policies remain intact for current versions of Exchange Server.
• The next version of Exchange Server, also known as Exchange vNext, will move to a continuous support model, but comes with requirements.
• Upgrade path for Exchange vNext.
• Modern Authentication support for non-hybrid Exchange 2019 deployments.
• Exchange 2019 support for TLS 1.3.
• Possibility to receive pre-release builds of Exchange server through Microsoft’s TAP program.
• Exchange Admin Center will receive overview section for Exchange servers update status in Exchange hybrid deployments.
• HCW will allow admins to skip configuration steps.
• Script to remove obsolete mitigations from EEMS.
• Microsoft Exchange Conference Community Virtual Airlift (MEC) for September 13-14! (register)
• Feedback forums for Exchange Online and Exchange Server.

More details on these announcements can be found in the full article on the announcements, and can be found here at the ENow Solutions blog.