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Exchange Server

Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange logo.png
Exchange Server 2013 and 2016 logo
Developer(s) Microsoft Corporation
Initial release April 11, 1993; 24 years ago (1993-04-11)
Stable release 2016 CU4 (v15.01.0669.032) (December 16, 2016; 5 months ago (2016-12-16))
Development status Active
Written in C++,C#
Operating system Windows Server
Platform x64
Type Collaborative software
License Trialware
Website microsoft.com/exchange

Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems.

Exchange Server was initially Microsoft's internal mail server. The first version of Exchange Server to be published outside Microsoft was Exchange Server 4.0. Exchange initially used the X.400 directory service but switched to Active Directory later. Versions 4.0 and 5.0 came bundled with an email client called Microsoft Exchange Client. It was discontinued in favor of Microsoft Outlook.

Exchange Server uses a proprietary protocol called MAPI. Over time, however, it added support for , , , and EAS.

Exchange Server is licensed both in the forms of on-premises software and software as a service. In the on-premises form, customer purchase client access licenses (CALs). In the software as a service form, Microsoft receives a monthly service fee instead (see Microsoft Office 365).

Microsoft had sold a number of simpler email products before, but Exchange Server was an entirely new X.400-based client–server mail system with a single database store that also supported X.500 directory services. The directory used by Exchange Server eventually became Microsoft's Active Directory service, an -compliant directory service which was integrated into Windows 2000 as the foundation of Windows Server domains.

There have been a number of versions:

The latest version was released on October 1, 2015 and introduced a number of changes:


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