Slashdot Mirror
Can OWA Replace the Outlook Client and the VPN?
IPAQ2000 writes "This past week, I attended a
panel discussion sponsored by Microsoft and
other major players in the space. One of the ideas brought up by one of the expert panel attendees from a company called
Seaside Software claimed that large organizations should rely mainly on Outlook Web Access (OWA) for Exchange 2K access for remote users. He claimed that OWA access with SSL makes it perfect for secure access and saves the hassle of the VPN client support. I can see how avoiding the VPN client and the Outlook client together on desktops around large organizations (like mine) could be a good thing (by saving money), and how moving to OWA for remote users makes sense. In fact, it looks like
MS themselves are putting much more emphasis on the browser in Exchange 2003 (OWA
and Outlook are almost identical) so that users can run whatever version is appropriate for their needs, according to connectivity speeds, location, etc. There was a discussion regarding mobility and remote solutions in the enterprise. I thought that this might be a good subject for a
Slashdot discussion, especially as it relates to Exchange. What do you think about OWA as main way of accessing Exchange, especially as OWA keeps getting richer with each version of Exchange?"
Since for a lot of companies the big dealbreaker for switching to Linux desktops is Outlook/Exchange and its calendaring capabilities, is this a way to avoid that? Can you have an exchange server setup but have everyone in the company use the web client on Linux so outlook itself is not necessary?
But I won't and I won't burn the karma.
I guess I am just one of the luckier ones. We have several thousand users streched all over the globe and we don't touch Outlook or Exchange. We never will.
But since there still isn't an enterprise open source offering that compares. We are Novell Groupwise, all the way. And guess what? We have never had a attachment virus, ever.
Okay, drunkin troll read head... Fook Exchange!
1;
With the prevalence of PDAs, and phones with PDA functions, it's getting ever harder to break the Outlook stranglehold - my phone syncs with my Outlook contacts/calendar/todo, and that's VERY important functionality. I'd love to use another PIM, but until the syncing software is available, I, and many other business users aren't likely to make the transition.