This is the important news that comes out from the first "internal" betas of "Centro" and "Cougar", the future 64-bit server products of the Microsoft platform: finally, the new platforms will integrate together Exchange 2007, System Center Essentials, SQL Server 2005 and ISA Server (plus Windows Sharepoint Services on some versions).
This is a great news: actually many Microsoft products have lots of benefits by using Exchange (I'm thinking for example on many of the Microsoft's ERP systems and CRM), but sometimes not all the customers has Exchange installed or are planning to install it (Exchange is always seen as a "mountain" to climb).
By giving them in the future a totally integrated platform, many advantages (and less difficulties) are on the horizon, for the customer and for the partners.