Microsoft Corp. announced that the Exchange 2000 product line is now generally available to customers, developers, partners and ASPs worldwide. The following are among the new features and enhancements for Exchange 2000: Instant messaging with presence information. Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server enables workers to schedule, manage and participate in multiparty voice, video and data conferences. The Outlook Web Access client gives users convenient access to e-mail, appointments and contacts from any Internet-connected PC. Enhancements include additional Outlook behaviors such as drag-and-drop capability and improvements by tenfold in scalability and performance. An extended platform for unified messaging makes possible a single inbox for the management of all important business communications including e-mail, voice mail and fax. Exchange 2000 also supports voice profile for Internet messaging (VPIM), enabling interoperability between separate voice mail systems. The announcement includes related products: Local Web Storage System, Mobile Information 2001 Server, a new server application code-named “Tahoe,” and a new visual development tool code-named “Office Designer” — which all take advantage of the new Web Storage System, a native XML information repository. “Tahoe,” delivers a flexible portal solution, enables users to easily find, share and publish information. Key design functionality of “Tahoe” includes: Search and organization; “Tahoe” includes an out-of-the-box Digital Dashboard-based portal providing one-step access to business-critical information. Using Web Parts, the portal can be customized with information and resources most valuable to users’ jobs. The search technology simplifies finding and aggregating information from across the company’s other “Tahoe” servers, Exchange public folders, file servers, intranet servers and Internet servers, as well as Lotus Domino databases. Documents can be checked-in and checked-out, sent through an approval process and published to the “Tahoe” portal from within Office 2000, “Office 10,” a Web browser or the Microsoft Windows Explorer. Built on the Web Storage System, “Tahoe” provides developers with a set of services for building Web-based collaborative applications using common tools and interfaces. Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server and Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server are available in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Evaluation versions are at www.microsoft.com/exchange/productinfo/eval.htm. The “Tahoe” beta is available at www.microsoft.com/servers/tahoe. General “Tahoe” availability is scheduled for the first half of 2001.