<p>Microsoft kicked off Day 1 of its MEC event today, emphasizing the virtues of its forthcoming Exchange 2013 product, as well as the next Exchange Online.</p><p>The event, happening this week in Orlando, Fla., was resumed this year after a 10-year lapse. Even the Microsoft Exchange team blog describes MEC's disappearance as something of a mystery. What isn't a mystery is Microsoft's messaging about its next-generation e-mail server.</p><p>Company officials have been hammering home certain themes about Exchange 2013 and the next Exchange Online. The product has a new architecture and offers management perks for IT pros, plus electronic-discovery capabilities for policy compliance. Developers can build apps that work across Outlook or Outlook Web apps, and those apps can be run separately from Exchange Server 2013, supporting greater application stability. E-mail users get integration with social networking feeds and improved touch controls in the Outlook client, so there are some usability improvements.</p><p>After giving the keynote address on Monday, Michael Atalla, director of product management at Microsoft on the Exchange team, summed up some of the highlights.</p><p><a href="http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/09/24/microsoft-exchange-conference-day-1.aspx">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231629/Microsoft_to_make_the_case_for_new_Exchange_version">Microsoft to make the case for new Exchange version</a> (Computerworld)</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-plays-up-e-mail-security-features-in-next-exchange-releases-7000004720/">Microsoft plays up e-mail security features in next Exchange releases</a> (ZDNet)</p><p><a href="http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6581">Microsoft Outlook 13 and Exchange 13: What&#039;s New?</a> (Notebook Review)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=dsZI73TN9kTgoiM6ktU-XhdGkXcKM">20 additional articles.</a></p>