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Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 Released
Microsoft released Service Pack 3 for Exchange 2010 today, which will permit Microsoft's older e-mail server to work with some of its newer product releases.
SP3, available here, allows Exchange 2010 to run on Windows Server 2012. It allows Exchange 2010 to coexist in a computing environment with Exchange 2013. It's not possible to upgrade directly from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013, which is why SP3 can be helpful prior to a server upgrade. SP3 contains updates to the database schema as well, according to the release notes. The service pack is also notable for ensuring compatibility between the server and Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft's newest browser.
One big snag for those IT pros hoping to use the new service pack to run Exchange 2010 alongside Exchange 2013 is that they will have to wait for Microsoft to release Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 1. CU1 for Exchange 2013 is expected to appear sometime in this first quarter, according to Microsoft's announcement, but the company hasn't indicated exactly when it will be available. In the meanwhile, Microsoft is recommending that IT shops test SP3.
SP3 for Exchange 2010 also contains all of the prior Update Rollups that Microsoft has released before issuing this service pack. That will no doubt prove helpful to IT pros since Microsoft has issued a lot of Update Rollups, sometimes with problems. The company recently announced a more regular Cumulative Update release schedule for Exchange 2013 where the updates will start to arrive on a more regular quarterly basis.
Even so, the release of update rollups hasn't slowed too much. Microsoft today announced the availability of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange 2010 SP2 and Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP3. Those two update rollups address some problems raised by Microsoft's customers.
Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP3 also will allow Exchange 2007 to coexist with Exchange 2013. However, enabling that capability depends on Microsoft first releasing CU1 for Exchange 2013. CU1 isn't available yet, but Microsoft expects it to be available sometime this quarter.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.