At the virtual Ignite 2020 conference, Microsoft announced a series of new on-prem versions for SharePoint, Skype4Business, Project Server and Exchange Server. A new Office version was also announced. This article summarizes the information known so far about the next Exchange Server version (vNext) (unfortunately there is not much yet).
Microsoft plans to release the new Exchange Server version in the second half of 2021 and is already recommending that customers upgrade existing Exchange installations to Exchange 2019. The background to this recommendation is that there will be a period of around two years during which Exchange 2019 can be updated directly to Exchange vNext. Exchange 2019 would therefore no longer have to be migrated, but can be upgraded directly to Exchange vNext via In-Place Upgrade, but only within the first 2 years after the release of Exchange vNext. The update from Exchange 2019 to Exchange vNext should work like the installation of a Cumulative Update (CU).
For older Exchange versions such as Exchange 2016 and now also Exchange 2013 for the first time, the only option is the conventional migration method. What is new, however, is that Exchange vNext now also supports migration from Exchange 2013 to Exchange vNext for the first time. Previously, Exchange migration was only possible from the two previous versions. For example, Exchange 2003 could be migrated to Exchange 2010. Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016. With Exchange vNext, not only Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 can now be migrated to the new version, but also from Exchange 2013.
Unfortunately, nothing is known about new features yet, but perhaps the new Exchange Admin Center, which has been tested with Microsoft 365 since July, will make it into the new Exchange version.
Microsoft is changing the licensing model again with the new Exchange version. Before Exchange 219, Exchange Server could still be purchased and licensed quite easily. Exchange 2019 requires the volume licensing program, i.e. a license agreement with Microsoft; small companies that had previously purchased server licenses and a corresponding number of access licenses were initially left out in the cold. With Exchange vNext, the licensing model is now changing again. Microsoft is introducing the "as a Service" model for the new Exchange Server version, as is already the case with other products such as System Center and Windows. This means that the support periods for Exchange Server will probably also be shortened. However, this should not really be a problem, as previously only the last two CUs (n-2) were supported. For an Exchange 2019 server, the current CU and the two previous CUs have always been supported.
Exchange vNext will probably be called Exchange 2022, the build number of the new Exchange version is not yet known. But I'll give you a hint: 15.3.
As soon as more information is available, there will of course be more articles on this topic.