For all us hardcore Swyxers, christmas is coming early this year. In the end of November the next generation of SwyxWare, version 6.10, is scheduled for release.

At the moment a lot of us is busy with running the beta of 6.10. And I want to give you all a short summary of the experience so far.

The major improvements in this version are.

• The possibility to use a remote SQL Server, 2005 Express or the real thing SQL Server 2005. All the user and systems files (with the exeption of recordings) will now be stored in the database and not in the file system.
• SwyxIt! is no longer bound to a Windows User Account. DCOM is not longer used, so a pure Swyx login can be used. If you want to, Window authentication may still be used.
• Mobile Extension Manager. This new server component adds the possibility of a new kind of parallell call to an external device. A review of this feature will be published later.
• Swyx SIP phone; S315. Swyx will release an entry level SIP-based phone with an extended feature set. This means that it will support status signalling and message waiting indication (MWI) and some other feature of SwyxWare. When I have had the chance to play more with the phone, I will also try to find time to review it here on Swyx-Forum.

It is amazing how these improvements have lifted SwyxWare to the next level. I have not had any problem with logging on the SwyxIt! client when using the Swyx Login, no matter how the enviroment have been on the client machine. This will make deployment and usage of a pure softphone solution much more tempting.

Also the use of a remote database have proven to have some benefits. During the tests I have used SQL server 2005 Express installed on another server than the SwyxServer itself. Since all the configuration and user files are stored inside the database, backup is much more easy now. What I tried with great success, was to simulate a server breakdown. I made a new server and named it the same and gave it the same IP-address as the 'old' server. When running Configuration Wizard, I just pointed it to the same database and in just some minutes a brand new server was running and none of the clients had any problem continue using the system as nothing had ever happened.

So, I hope to be able to write a review about the Mobile Extension Manager and the new SIP phone soon.