SAN DIEGO — Microsoft is planning to deliver updates to its Exchange Server product every two years and is considering a similar move to deliver SQL Server updates in a more timely manner, company officials said at the TechEd 2004 conference here.

The moves to deliver more frequent, smaller updates — rather than waiting years between major releases chock-full of new features — follow on the heels of Microsoft's recent announcement that it is stepping up its Windows Server delivery schedule.

Microsoft officials said earlier this month that the company is pushing to deliver Windows Server releases every two years. In between the major Windows Server upgrades, which will be spaced four years apart, the company will ship an interim, minor Windows Server release, according to Redmond's latest roadmap. The result? A new version of Windows Server should hit roughly every two years.

A similar strategy is underfoot with Exchange.

The Exchange Server team acknowledged at TechEd that the company has scrapped the Exchange "Kodiak" code name. Kodiak, which Microsoft first discussed in 2001, referred to the next major version of Exchange Server that was due to follow Exchange Server 2003. The most recent ship date Microsoft had assigned to Kodiak was 2006.

Microsoft is still planning on doing a major release of Exchange Server, said Kim Akers, senior director for Exchange Server. But that new release, which still will feature the same "unified" SQL Server data store, as well as the productivity and reliability enhancements that had been expected to be part of Kodiak, does not yet have a code name.

But before Microsoft delivers the next major version, the company will roll out a more minor interim release, currently known as Exchange Edge Services. Edge Services is due out in early 2005.

Exchange Edge Services is akin to the "R2" Windows Server release, Akers acknowledged. R2, due out next year, will bundle together a number of bug fixes, feature packs and some additional new functionality. Edge Services will feature Microsoft's new CallerID anti-spam technology, as well as version 2 of the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) capability that Microsoft is rolling out first as an add-on to Exchange Server 2003.

Akers said the Exchange team has a slew of other possible new features on its plate, but it's unclear which of these will make it into the next major Exchange Server release. Among these futures: enhanced calendaring and e-mail life-cycle management tools; enhanced mobility support; enhanced security and anti-spam support; Longhorn Server support, 64-bit support; Web Services and Web part support; and incorporation of the Windows Server System Common Engineering Criteria.

SQL Server Team Considers Similar Moves

Microsoft's SQL Server team has been even slower than the Exchange team, when it comes to delivering new releases. SQL Server 2000, the most recent release of Microsoft's database, shipped four years ago. "Yukon," a k a SQL Server 2005, is on tap to ship in mid-2005.

Microsoft is still soliciting customer feedback as to whether they would like more frequent database updates, said Kirsten Ward, senior product manager with SQL Server. Many customers would not want to feel pressure to update their database every two years, she said.

"But there's a happy medium," Ward said. "We didn't get as much credit as we would have if we'd packaged up all the new technologies we've delivered since SQL Server 2000 shipped, similar to the way Windows is doing with R2."

Among the interim technologies the team has provided are several service packs; SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services; and the new SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer tool that went gold this week.

The next version of SQL Server due out after Yukon ships is code-named "Acadia." Microsoft officials have said to expect Acadia in the "2006+" timeframe. Ward said it is fair to consider Acadia the "Yukon + 1" release of SQL Server. She declined to talk about features that the company is planning for Acadia.