SUMMARY: Use HP OpenMail as a backend for Outlook Clients.
Your enterprise is probably primarily UNIX based on the server end (Sun, Linux, HPUX).
A good rule of thumb is, when dealing with large networks, to keep the server platforms as homogenous as possible. This makes administration, and training easier. This cuts down on the amount of specialized people you need on staff to deal with each platform. It also provides fewer problems when unifying many different systems. If you're an FDA regulated company having a millon different platforms to keep documentation on can also prove to be a pain in the neck.
Your fellow empolyees are probably asking for more exhange based messaging, but what they are really looking for is outlook. I find most non-development oriented employees here tend to favor outlook because it does everything for you. Outlook 2000, now, will even wipe it's own rear after it takes a crap with all your unsaved messages.
Now, here is where you can have you cake and eat it too.
What outlook really needs to act like outlook is the exchange server back end. Well, you can pass out the outlooks clients and use HP Openmail on the backend. This allows you to keep the backend solid and reliable while providing the gushy and easy to use (wink) outlook interface without lossing any functionality. Outlook/Exhchange has a lot of good features, but all the features come with a price: less realability. One of the main problems my IT department has with Microsoft products (exchange included) is realiabiltity. I have had to rebuild a corupt Jet database for exchange by hand one too many times. There are other things to deal with, memory leaks and bugs de' jour.
I recommend exchange for smaller outfits that don't have a very big staff to design and maintain complicated messaging systems, but I also urge the same people to keep their exchange implementation as maniala as possible, because the day will come when you are not small and you need to migrate to more robust system.
Slashdot Mirror
SUMMARY: Use HP OpenMail as a backend for Outlook Clients.
Your enterprise is probably primarily UNIX based on the server end (Sun, Linux, HPUX).
A good rule of thumb is, when dealing with large networks, to keep the server platforms as homogenous as possible. This makes administration, and training easier. This cuts down on the amount of specialized people you need on staff to deal with each platform. It also provides fewer problems when unifying many different systems. If you're an FDA regulated company having a millon different platforms to keep documentation on can also prove to be a pain in the neck.
Your fellow empolyees are probably asking for more exhange based messaging, but what they are really looking for is outlook. I find most non-development oriented employees here tend to favor outlook because it does everything for you. Outlook 2000, now, will even wipe it's own rear after it takes a crap with all your unsaved messages.
Now, here is where you can have you cake and eat it too.
What outlook really needs to act like outlook is the exchange server back end. Well, you can pass out the outlooks clients and use HP Openmail on the backend. This allows you to keep the backend solid and reliable while providing the gushy and easy to use (wink) outlook interface without lossing any functionality. Outlook/Exhchange has a lot of good features, but all the features come with a price: less realability. One of the main problems my IT department has with Microsoft products (exchange included) is realiabiltity. I have had to rebuild a corupt Jet database for exchange by hand one too many times. There are other things to deal with, memory leaks and bugs de' jour.
I recommend exchange for smaller outfits that don't have a very big staff to design and maintain complicated messaging systems, but I also urge the same people to keep their exchange implementation as maniala as possible, because the day will come when you are not small and you need to migrate to more robust system.