Although Microsoft is on the final stretch when it comes down to the general availability of its latest iteration of Exchange Server, the company announced that it would take the necessary steps designed to guarantee that customers would be able to run Exchange Server 2007 on top of Windows Server 2008 R2. Initially, the software giant had told companies that Exchange Server 2007 and the latest version of Windows Server wouldn’t play nice together.

Kevin Allison, GM Exchange Customer Experience, noted that customer feedback managed to catalyze a change of heart for the Redmond giant. In this regard, organizations looking to embrace Windows Server 2008 R2, but not yet ready to make the jump to Exchange Server 2010, will be able to continue running Exchange Server 2007 even after they migrate to the successor of Windows Server 2008.

“Earlier this year we made a decision in one direction, and due to the feedback we have received on this blog and elsewhere, we have reconsidered. In the coming calendar year we will issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support of Windows Server 2008 R2. We heard from many customers that this was important for streamlining their operations and reducing administrative challenges, so we have changed course and will add R2 support,” Allison explained.

At this point in time, Microsoft has yet to supply additional details about the refresh coming to Exchange Server 2007. “We are still working through the specifics and will let you know once we have more to share on the timing of this update,” Allison added.

Still, the Redmond company stressed that it was indeed listening to its customers and that the feedback provided could influence decisions which might seem like final. “We always talk about listening to customers and sometimes this is written off by many as 'marketing speak',” Allison said. “In fact, we do take feedback seriously and no input is more important to our engineering processes than your voice.”