We're not a large shop (~1700 users, but ~1 TB of mail), but we've been through the rounds with email and calendar. I originally supported a sendmail/pop/imap implementation for email with Synchronize for calendar for a number of years, and it worked reasonably well and was inexpensive, though folks didn't like Synchronize. Demands for better cross-platform calendaring, better web email interface, support for mobile devices, etc drove us to look at the options.
The first time around (about five years ago) we ended up on Oracle Collaboration Suite, which ended up making Exchange look easy, low cost, and reliable. After reaching a point with OCS last year where Oracle, after three attempts, couldn't upgrade us to a supported release, we bailed and did a second review of the options. We concluded there wasn't much else beyond Exchange or Zimbra that had both the features and good x-platform support (our research faculty mostly run Macs). Zimbra's financial situation wasn't the most reassuring, and their support for mobile devices (BlackBerry and iPhone) was limited. Exchange was selected, which was a hard nut to swallow for many folks. We cutover to Exchange 2007 over a single very long weekend last Sept, we are supporting Outlook, Entourage and T-Bird, we provide full BlackBerry and iPhone support. Things have gone very smoothly since then... I'm a Mac/iPhone user, and can say this solution is the best we've had in my 15 years here. It may not be the least expensive, but MS Edu pricing makes it reasonable. It's got its quirks - there are things I miss about T-Bird, but I'd trade them in a heartbeat for the integrated email/calendar in Entourage, and for good iPhone support. I think the communications disconnect runs both ways - there isn't a clear understanding of the cost on the management side, but there doesn't always appear to be an understanding of the functional requirements on the technical side. A well-integrated calendar and email system brings a lot of efficiencies to a mid-to-large sized organization - I know the change saved hours per week for me personally, just in people and room scheduling. And support for mobile devices is close to being required, not optional, these days. - Gregg -- Gregg TeHennepe Sr. Manager, Research Liaison Information Technology The Jackson Laboratory Bar Harbor, Maine (207) 288-6068 The Jackson Laboratory: Leading the Search for Tomorrow's Cures
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
