Exchange Replacement

The_KiD

The_KiD

The_KiD

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West Yorkshire
i think I havee asked about this before, but dont think I ever got to anything that suited the job.

We are in the market for a new mail server, but the price tag of exchange is ridiculous.

At the moment we only have a very basic pop3 based mail server and I would like something that has the following features:

- Shared mailboxes
- Shared calendar
- Global Address books
- Web access
- Allows users to set their own out of office replies.
- Handles multiple domains

Can anyone recomend anything or point me in the right direction?
 
You pay for the best - you get the best.
There simply isn't anything out there that comes close to Exchange if the majority of your users are Windows users and you want the features such as shared calendars, shared mailboxes, etc.

You want a basic mail server that receives mail and then allows people to log in and collect it there are plenty of solutions.
Adding Web Mail is quite straight forward to.
However when it comes to the other features you won't find anything that handles it as well as Exchange.

Exchange is pricey, but it is pricey for a reason - it does its job extremely well.
 
I agree with the above but if cost is important but you dont mind using the difference to retrain users then you can try Lotus Notes :(
 
but for the price of that alone you could just buy exchange
that, and it could be a world of hassle setting up to existing DCs, etc
 
Problem is for the amount of uses we have the price tag for exchange is £15,000

For the features it brings, the company is not willing to spend such a massive amount of money.

However I can the see the huge benefits shared mailboxes/calendars would bring to us
 
400 users and no you need a license for every mail box and we have approx 400 individual mail boxes.
 
just out of interest how many desktops?

take a look at Zimbra, its the only thing that gets within spitting distance of exchange.
 
400 users? You really should be using exchange. 15k is too much for a company with 400 users? Your management should be shot for not considering the business needs.
 
I agree with the above. You really need to use Exchange. Exchange 2007 is quite easy to setup as well.

Unfortunately you can't use the Small Business Server option which is a hell of a lot cheaper but limited to 75 users.

I can't think of anything that comes close to Exchange, especailly in a Microsoft environment. As long as all the clients have Outlook (not express) then you're laughing.




M.
 
You could look at something like mDaemon Pro which has an Outlook plug-in. I think Merak IceWarp does too, Gordano NTMail as well.

However...

It's not just about end-user features either.

Maximising uptime for a server for 400 users must be an issue. Ask your management how long they could be without e-mail for should you have a problem. I know businesses which cluster Exchange Servers for ~100 users to maximise uptime.

Is it 400 users or devices? Exchange CALs are per device or per user, not mailboxes.

Mind you, if you've grown to 400 users without already implementing groupware / colobration features I'm amazed!
 
OK, Lotus Notes is a far more viable option now and offers full database activity too.

In addition you can now use DAMO which is Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook so you can have your Domino servers but still use Outlook Clients (not 2k7 yet) which will mean you wont need to retrain any users, only really get a handful trained up on Domino Server which when up and running offers very similar functionality to Exchange if not more.
 
If management won't pay for Exchange, take your experience somewhere else where you're given the funding to do your job properly.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, will take a look at Zimbra, Domino & Lotus Notes (cant believe I hadnt thought of Lotus Notes though).

The company is a rapidly growing company at the moment and they are still trying to adjust to being a big company and the price tags that come with things.

As for taking my experience elsewhere I have to look more at the position im in, which is IT manager of the largest independent car hire firm in the UK, 90 sites in UK, 1 US and 1 Aus and this is without any previous experience in management and even being a supervisor.

So I think it is better to stick with the company and slowly bring their way of thinking in to line with the rest of the world while at the same time softening the blow as much as possible.

...errr kinda wandered off there sorry :)
 
Another concern is that if they wont spend 15k on Exchange licensing (Open licensing perhaps?) then I hate to think what hardware is in place already for the 400 odd users

Even if you went for a "cheaper" solution, you still have the hardware costs, not to mention the retraining costs for something like Lotus Notes

As already mentioned, Exchange 2007 is a good solution and with multiple clustering you add extra redundancy to you Exchange organisation.

just my 2p

Andy
 
If you want a quiet life get Exchange, DO NOT touch Lotus Notes/Domino, you will regret it. Compare to Exchange it is pants...

Persuade the company to spend the small amount and go with Exchange, I wouldn't use anything else, whether it is for 20 users or 10,000 users. Simple.
 
What you need to do is spend some time actually showing the cost benefits of going the exchange route. Sure £15 grand may sound expensive, but show the cost benefits of going to exchange.
Show all the benefits, uses.
Got people who only use e-mail and nothing else? then don't buy them an office license, use outlook web access. Also great for people to check at home.
Got management with PDA's yet they get their e-mail by dialing in from a laptop or a blackberry (cos they are dead cheap) Exchange comes with push e-mail to Windows mobile clients. Got multiple sites? Save time with folk communicating by using the exchange built in messaging.

Check out some of the case studies, see if any can help your cause.
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/casestudies/default.mspx

We have exchange 2003 and the uptime is very good. Also add to that the ease of patching, and the ease of integration into a Windows domain already.
Add to that you can get support direct from MS for £995 for 5 telephone support calls. Sure you phone India for literally 6 hours sometimes, but they remote into your PC/Server etc and sort it. It is a yearly must.
Remember Exchange you could easily conceive to run for at least 5 years. So they are getting their e-mail system for 3 grand a year, and they think it is too expensive?
I tend not to be a huge supporter of MS' software, but i wouldn't go any other route for e-mail. Even the amount of people offering Exchange as a hosted service now, shows just how good it is.
Failing that, i seen an article on the Register about a company punting 2nd hand licenses etc, and you can save up to 80%, but you need to go a few versions back.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/08/04/secondhand-software/
 
The_KiD said:
i think I havee asked about this before, but dont think I ever got to anything that suited the job.

We are in the market for a new mail server, but the price tag of exchange is ridiculous.

At the moment we only have a very basic pop3 based mail server and I would like something that has the following features:

- Shared mailboxes
- Shared calendar
- Global Address books
- Web access
- Allows users to set their own out of office replies.
- Handles multiple domains

Can anyone recomend anything or point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...

Take a look at a program called surgemail. It isn't a replacement for exchange but I've seen it happily deal with 300 users on a high powered single server (i know no redundancy blah blah :P).

Won't provide you with Global Address Books or Shared calendar but I thing your going to have to give those a miss tbh without exchange and AD.

I can't quite understand why such a large company can't afford £15k for what is the primary communication method these days.
 
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