Company Server Advice

[kilvano]

I duplicated this thread from the Apple section as i think i will get a better response from the server junkies.

Ok so here goes....

I work for a design studio in Vancouver which has a growing marketing team and run all Mac hardware. We have about 10 MacBooks, 8 iMacs and a couple of MacBook Pros with Apple Cinema Displays.

We use an XServe server for internet sharing and file storage with ext hard drives for back up.

For email...everyone uses the ISP pop server and email remains on the server for 30 days. This means if someone loses a laptop....the emails are gone too. Also mean no sharing of email and stuff.
For calendar...well everyone keeps a local copy and so no sharing of that either.
For contacts...the same. Local copy and no LDAP or anything like that.

Everyone has Office 2008 and the managers have blackberry's which i assume use the pop server too. We are all moving to iPhones on July 11th.

What we want:-

*
* Calendar Sharing
* Sync mail, contact and calendar on Mac & iPhone without cables
* Remote access as lots of our guys work from home and other offices
* Web access to mail would be nice but not a priority
* Company contact directory
* Backup of email/calendar/contact in case laptop is stolen/damaged


I guess what I'm asking is, if i want an exchange server or something like that would we need to put in a windows box and will the macs/entourage operate correctly with it?

Is there a mac alternative (not mobileme as it doesn't allow custom domain names)?

Thanks
Chris

 

[atomiser]

if you were a microsoft house and currently running a workgroup type network i would be screaming microsoft small business server at you...the bang for your buck is *outstanding*...i wouldn't, however, want to be the tech that had to get your mac's interoperating with it! perhaps something like clarkconnect might work better for you and your environment? not sure quite how many of your boxes it will tick though as i've no experience with it.

 

[slylittlefox]

Google's offering? Google Apps Premier Edition

Other than that, there's not much else that's proven technology. I'd definitely recommend the Microsoft route, as you're already half way there. Exchange server will integrate with your Mac's no problem - you're already using Microsoft Office and Entourage and both of them are tried and tested with Exchange.

Go for it

 

[kilvano]

I dont think google apps will help up. No contact sync (unless we do that ipod hack with address book) and no calendar plugin for entourage...just outlook.

Im looking at Kerio Mail Server. It works on OSX, will work with Office 2008 and the iPhone.

Not sure how painful the set up is though

 

[Nikumba]

atomiser getting 2K3 to work with macs is a piece of **** to be honest, have got several sites running like this.

The main thing you need to change is on the file shares is to set the password to clear text as OSX 10.3 sent its passwords out like this.

kilvano - I have used Kerio and it isnt a bad platform, used to run it on Linux for a windows network and had macs, pcs all connecting to it.

SBS I think will be overkill for what you are after, however bare in mind most big anti-spam software is Exchange based. HOwever I am assuming your POP server has antispam on it, so you could set Kerio up to pop into the server and then deliver the email to mailboxes on your server.

Set the clients to connect into this, best option would be IMAP as this will still leave the mail on the server.

Kimbie

 

[wasc]

I think what you want is Kerio Mailserver. (http://www.kerio.co.uk/kms_home.html)

It installs on Windows, Linux or Mac's which is nice. Does pretty much everything (i.e. pop, imap, webmail) e.t.c. and has most of the functionality of Exchange including push emails with the microsoft mobile devices and blackberry support. (http://www.kerio.co.uk/kms_blackberry.html)

Get youself a trial and give it a go. We have instaled it before on a linux server and a windows server without problem.

It's also a synch to backup - just need a copy of the "store" directory, and a copy of the configuration file + license file and you're sorted.