Today we are excited to announce that the Exchange Server 2019 Technology Adoption Program (TAP) is accepting nominations! The TAP is open to customers and partners. It is designed to validate prerelease builds of Exchange Server by having customers deploy them in both lab and production environments, and to help partners who build solutions that integrate with Exchange Server to get early access to prerelease builds for validation against their solution.
Joining the TAP has several advantages, such as the ability to provide input and feedback on future updates, develop a close relationship with the Exchange Server engineering team, receive pre-release information about Exchange Server, and more. TAP members also get support at no additional charge from Microsoft for issues related to the TAP.
What's in it for TAP members?
- A close relationship with the Exchange Server team;
- An opportunity to provide feedback on future updates to Exchange Server directly to the team;
- Technical conference calls with members of the Exchange Server team;
- Ability to run production-ready prerelease builds of Exchange Server;
- No additional charge for access to Microsoft support resources for Exchange TAP issues for the duration of the TAP (24/7 for any critical issues found in production); and
- Take advantage of new and enhanced features coming to Exchange Server early.
What do I have to do to participate in the Exchange TAP?
- Sign legal documents, including a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA);
- Go through a few steps that will facilitate easy communication between you and Microsoft (details provided when applicable);
- Deploy prerelease builds of Exchange Server on some of the servers in your production environment;
- Commit to timely response of surveys and feedback requests from Microsoft;
- Commit to providing resources for TAP activities for the duration of the program – people/time as well as machines needed for testing and production, and associated operating system software licenses; and
- Provide us with deployment plans, including details of network topologies and additional reports, as applicable.
What makes a good TAP candidate?
- Willing to dedicate the resources (people/time and machines) to testing prerelease builds of Exchange Server in production. We find that we get some of our best feedback through production deployments, and so we will prioritize nominations from customers willing to be aggressive in their production rollouts.
- Responsive to our requests for feedback, including responding to surveys, attending conference calls, and participating in a distribution list.
- Give constructive criticism with context – don't just say "I don’t like feature X." Provide us more information like "Here's why feature X won’t work for my Exchange environment, and here's why I think doing it another way would be better."
- Give feedback even when not requested. We may not have sent out a survey or had a call about a topic, but if something about the product is problematic for you – or you love it, we want to know.
If you feel your organization is what we are looking for, you can nominate yourself by sending email to ExchangeTAP@microsoft.com and please put “TAP Customer Nomination” in the subject line, along with the following information:
- Legal company name;
- Number of mailboxes in your organization;
- Version(s) of Exchange you are currently running (include Exchange Online if you are hybrid);
- Name, email address and phone number of contact person; and
- Reason for your interest in the TAP.
All nominations are reviewed and screened prior to acceptance. No customers are allowed access to any prerelease downloads or information until all legal paperwork is properly executed. Nomination does not mean acceptance, as not all nominees will be chosen for the TAP. If you are preliminarily accepted, we will contact you to get the required paperwork started.
Scott Schnoll
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Exchange Online / Exchange Server
