While Service Pack 1 for Exchange Server 2010 captured most of the buzz at Microsoft’s TechEd 2010 conference earlier this month, for many IT departments the news of most interest to them was the Redmond software maker’s announcement about another service pack, one for Exchange Server 2007.

Microsoft told its faithful at the conference that Service Pack 3 for Exchange Server 2007 would be ready at the end of this month. The service pack is needed to make Exchange 2007 compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows Server 2008 R2, the server variant of Windows 7 and Microsoft’s only 64-bit only operating system, reached retail shelves in October 2009. When the server software was released to manufacturers in July of that year, however, Microsoft declared the operating system would not be supporting Exchange 2007. That Draconian decision produced ululations from many in the company’s user base, some who believed Microsoft was leveraging Server 2008 to coerce companies to move to its latest mail management application Exchange 2010.

The official word from Microsoft as to why it was choking off Exchange 2007 from Server 2008 was lack of resources. It asserted that it was pulling out all the stops on bringing online Exchange 2010, and it didn’t want to dissipate those efforts on a legacy technology like Exchange 2007. While Server 2008 R2 would support Exchange 2007′s domain controllers, the company said at the time, the mail application itself won’t be supported on the server software. Anyone who wants to upgrade to Server 2008 R2, it added, will have to bite the bullet and move to Exchange 2010.

The announcement to abandon Exchange 2007 users who wanted to upgrade to Server 2008 R2 didn’t surprise pundits, but that didn’t dampen the uproar that ensued. For an IT administrator, stepping up to a new operating system like Server 2008 R2 is challenging enough, but to add to that burden another major upgrade, one to  another email program, was not going to win Microsoft any happy points with info tech stalwarts.

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