Microsoft Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server enables knowledge workers to collaborate with anyone, anywhere by providing data, video and voice conferencing across intranets and the Internet.

The product has enterered Release Candidate 1 and is expected to be available by the end of 2000. It provides integrated scheduling and management services to help reduce network bandwidth contention and increase availability.

"Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server gives our customers single-click access to multiparty audio, video and data conferences," says Eric Lockard, general manager of the Exchange Product Unit at Microsoft. "And the great news for IT administrators is that this enhanced user functionality is accompanied by tools to help them easily manage their company's conferencing infrastructure and network bandwidth."

Conferencing Server includes the NetMeeting conferencing software client for both point-to-point and multiparty conferences. The server supports load balancing, failover and control of attendee access to conferences. By allocating bandwidth for each conference technology provider, Conferencing Server lets customers to run any combination of the conferencing services simultaneously.
It is built on the Web Store and includes a transacted data store; fault-tolerant, intelligent SMTP routing for better performance; a new Outlook Web Access client that allows faster access from a Web browser; instant messaging; and services for building workflow solutions that automate business processes.

Exchange 2000 provides tight integration with Windows 2000, according to the company. Microsoft Exchange 2000 RC1 will be available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/prodinfo/2000/orderkit.htm. RC1 will also be available via the Microsoft TechNet Plus and MSDN programs.