The biggest negative I can see is that it is a Microsoft platform. It
does scale, but it is also less secure (in my opinion), and the support
for non-Microsoft clients is somewhat limited. Two large systems that
have not been discussed are Lotus Notes and Novell Groupwise. These
systems also scale (State of Michigan, U of Michigan are Groupwise
customers; Jackson National Life runs Notes), have excellent support,
and support non-Microsoft platforms. Best of all, they do not force a
campus-wide AD structure.
+-------------------------------------------+
| Michael Surato |
| College of Arts and Letters |
| Michigan State University |
| 320 Linton Hall |
| East Lansing, MI 48824 |
| Voice: (517) 353-0778 Fax: (517) 355-0159 |
+-------------------------------------------+
________________________________
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Jon Galbreath
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 11:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] University-wide messaging and calendar system
I think for once I have to totally agree with you on this one, Laurence.
I've always been pleased with Exchange and especially with the OWA and
OMA feature sets. And frankly, people wouldn't run the software if it
was crap. Look at all the large corporations that run Exchange for
hundreds of thousands of users. If it couldn't perform, they wouldn't
use it. Exchange certainly is not cheap, but as you said, you get what
you pay for.
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Laurence Bates
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 11:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] University-wide messaging and calendar system
I'm not clear what the negatives are for Exchange. It scales well, has
great support from both Microsoft and a host of other companies, it has
the best web client that I am aware of, supports more current mobile
devices and can be expected to support any significant future devices
capable of email and calendaring. Sure it costs money but so do most
good systems. My sense is that you tend to get what you pay for in both
cars and software.
________________________________
From: Jon Galbreath [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 10:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] University-wide messaging and calendar system
Zimbra's a pretty good alternative to Exchange for a collaboration
suite. My only thought on it is: what's going to happen to it now that
it's been purchased by Yahoo?
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Troy Murray
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 9:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MSUNAG] University-wide messaging and calendar system
I enjoyed attending the MSU IT Exchange last Friday to discuss the
technology direction and concerns for the University as well as to share
ideas on what might be the best solutions.
In particular the topic Mr Davis discussed on the current University
email system and the possible directions that could be taken with it
("stay the course", replace, upgrade, discontinue, etc) and the thoughts
and feelings of the audience. I can see their are some passionate
individuals about this topic.
While I feel the mail system could be better with updates, like a
refreshed web interface, I feel there is a much greater need for a
University-wide calendar system. I seem to remember Mr Gift commenting
on how this topic can be very sensitive with individuals and that one of
the biggest challenges with it is personal control to who can access
your calendar and what they can see or do.
Personally I've been looking into the Zimbra Collaboration Suite
(http://www.zimbra.com/products/) which seems to provide a fully
featured messaging, calendaring, contact management package. The system
can be run in a hosted enviroment or purchased and run at the University
level on our own servers.
For those unfamiliar with Zimbra, it provides messaging using all of the
standard protocols (POP3, IMAP and SMTP with or without SSL) so
stand-alone programs like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora
or Apple Mail.app would work with it. In addition a fancy AJAX webmail
interface is provided, as well as a non-fancy HTML one, and a very nice
mobile interface for those wishing to access the system that way.
Zimbra also provides a calendar to each user and allows the user to
control access to it from other users. With permissions set users can
even "subscribe" to anothers calendar using the iCal standard protocol
with programs like Apple's iCal or Mozilla Sunbird (Windows, Linux, Mac)
and Microsoft Outlook 2007 or 2003 with a plug-in.
One advantage I see with this system is that users of Outlook can still
maintain their calendar, contacts and mail through Outlook, like they do
now, and all of that will be syncronized with the Zimbra server. It
even supports Outlook in cached mode. Those of us with Macs can use
Mail.app, iCal and Address book and this will sync (using iSync) to the
server as well.
There are a number of other features that I haven't looked at yet, such
as instant messaging, creating documents and custom components for VOIP
or mapping.
I see on their web site that they are having some webinars about campus
wide messaging using Zimbra, and comparing it to what Google is offering
(http://www.zimbra.com/about/webinars.html). I'm curious, has anyone at
the "University level" looked at Zimbra as a possible replacement for
the current messaging system? Is anyone on campus running Zimbra? If
so, what has been your experience with it?
Just my thoughts to try and get a discussion started on this topic.
--
Troy Murray
Informatics Specialist
Michigan State University
Biomedical Research & Informatics Center (BRIC)
100 Conrad Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-432-4248
Fax: 517-353-9420
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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