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Choosing a Replacement Email System For a University?

Posted by timothy on from the did-I-leap-off-the-page dept.

SmarkWoW writes "The university I attend is currently looking to change the way in which is provides its students with an email service. In the past they used a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their needs. A committee has narrowed the possibilities down to three vendors: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Representatives from these three vendors will be coming to our college and giving a presentation on the advantages of their systems. We're looking at other services these companies provide such as calendaring and integration with existing software that our university runs. What questions would Slashdot readers ask during these Q&A sessions? Which of these three companies would you recommend? Why? What advantages would each have that college-level students would take advantage of? What other aspects should we consider when making our decision?"

11 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. The most important question... by Ron_Fitzgerald · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you from Microsoft? Yes? Well thank you for your time.

    --
    ~ Ron Fitzgerald
    1. Re:The most important question... by Pseudonym · · Score: 4, Funny

      Do you mind if we move the chairs out of the room before we start?

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    2. Re:The most important question... by cjb658 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yahoo! is compelling with the acquisition of Zimbra. Zimbra is amazing Ajax. Don't build your own - it is as nonstandard as you can make postfix/courier, and very intolerant of customising the backend. Instead, license Zimbra as a service, elastically as needed. Downside? Is Yahoo! still with us in 9 mos? Yang turned down Ballmers' USD 38/share, and last I looked today, they were trading at USD 11 and going down, while the CFO is looking to bypass the nominal severance minimums demanded by California for their mass bloodletting.

      Let's see...Zimbra is the best alternative to Exchange. Yahoo owns Zimbra. Microsoft will soon own Yahoo.

      Shit.

    3. Re:The most important question... by rthomanek · · Score: 3, Funny

      Exchange is great. No jokin'. If you have the right staff, who don't treat it like an SMTP engine and IMAP4 - then kick it when it doesn't behave that way.

      DO. NOT. LIE.

      So, I believe that Google is nothing but a life of frustration - and in five years, when you see you've helped to build a monster that will make you wish for the good 'ol days of MS Monopoly?

      I guess this pretty much explains your bias towards MS...

      MS is beginning to license Exchange as a service online. It's good today, and prolly great tomorrow. Look into that - I think the real advantages happen once the number of users approaches 15K. It's an elastic service, and they do SharePoint integrated portal, too.

      Now that has really made me laugh.

  2. Missing option: by pwnies · · Score: 3, Funny

    Verizon. I hear they do wonders when it comes to email security.

  3. a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their needs.

    I can see where this is going already. Enjoy your Exchange server farm.

    Protip: Don't let your IT department work with anything sharp. That way they can't kill themselves.

  4. Re:what happens if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dear Mr. Jones:

    These e-mail services will all be provided to you on the cloud. You don't need to back up any data since it will be maintained on at least 2 commodity servers in different data centers. You won't be vulnerable to worms through our mail apps run only in your browser under javascript, and it's not complex enough to corrupt. You won't need a log, as no data will ever be purged, merely "deleted".

    The sending policy is simple... You log into the server and send your mail. You are a college kid, you do not control the domain.

    We provide an add address button.

    Of course, it will work with any mobile phone that ships webkit.

    We wish all of the questions we get were this engaging. Most of you kids only ask if there's a button to add e-mails of their myspace friends.

    Sincerely,
    -Corporate Drone.

  5. Use Blackboard by bogaboga · · Score: 3, Funny

    Forget all that junk. Use the Blackboard http://www.blackboard.com/ system. I must warn you; it's a proprietary system.

  6. Lotus Notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I heard it's pretty good!

  7. Re:Which service integrates best? by IronChef · · Score: 5, Funny

    This sounds so crazy. Mass account creation? Directory services?

    Back in MY day, if you wanted a school email account, you went to the lab underneath the library and tried to get the alpha geek's attention. If he found your manner pleasing, and if your papers were in order, you might get a VAX account.

    Or, he might turn you into a newt. You took your chances.

    It's kind of sad today, now that the magic is gone.

  8. Three choices? by Crazy+Taco · · Score: 2, Funny

    A committee has narrowed the possibilities down to three vendors: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

    Three vendors? You must be new here; everyone else on this board only sees two! :D

    --
    Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.