Re: Possible mail server switch
- From: "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" <lanwench@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:16:11 -0500
Gretchen Hembree <GretchenHembree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I know this isn't the right board for this question, but I wasn't
sure where else to go! I am looking for an expert opinion.
I'm plenty opinionated, although I can't promise I'm an expert.
I have a company of about 30 users who each have two email addresses.
For the last several years we have hosted our own internal email with
an MDeamon mail server software. That is currently on a Windows
Server 2003 OS. Once the mail is checked it is moved and stored on
another server that is running Windows Server 2000 and Exchange 2000.
Due to a variety of reasons including occasional MDaemon anti-virus
file corruption
But you aren't wedded to that product, you know - and you ought to run
Exchange aware antivirus even if you're scanning your mail at the gateway.
and the desire to check email remotely,
OWA?
VPN + Outlook?
Upgrade to Exchange 2003 or 2007 and use Outlook Anywhwere (RPC over HTTP)
and Exchange Activesync to windows mobile PDAs?
I am
considering a switch to an external hosting service with POP service.
This appears to be a much cheaper option
It should be, because it's a significant downgrade ;-).
and with the number of users
I have a lot less work on my end.
Not necessarily - you're just moving the effort from centralized admin on
your server, to more decentralized desktop work. Trom the client management
side, if you get rid of Exchange, but stick with Outlook, you're going back
to PST files, which *must* sit on the users' local hard drives (it's not
supported to access them across a LAN/WAN connection. You can't sync them to
anything either. (I think PST files are icky).
If you use POP, you're downloading the data to your workstations & removing
it from the server - and that's a pain to manage/back up, and not very
useful when people travel as they won't have access to any of their
downloaded mail/sent items/etc.
And POP is mail only. So's IMAP. What about calendars/contacts/tasks? Don't
people want to share them, see them in OWA, see them when they travel, etc?
Don't they use distribution groups?
I do have a few questions. One,
is this a good idea?
Well, no, not in my book. But I do think you need to do something as you're
still on E2k... it's limited in functionality and is also out of support
now. If you're in the US, how did you survive daylight savings time?
Two, a concern I have is attachments that my
users send to each other. Now they would be traveling outside our
network to the external mail service. Do I need to worry about
encryption and decide on a service to use? Since it was all in house
and behind our firewall we have never worried about that before.
Can anyone think of something else I should be considering?
Your help and opinion are very much appreciated!!! ~Gretchen
I'd look into Exchange 2007....if you don't want to host it or manage it
yourself, there are plenty of companies who will provide this at a
reasonable cost. Yes, it's a recurring cost, but you don't have to deal with
the hardware/scanning/backups/whatnot, so it may be cost efficient.
The two companies I've been most pleased with are www.liveoffice.com and
www.mailstreet.net
I don't think POP mail (or even IMAP) is sufficient/suitable for a business
environment. If your company is not very reliant on mail or Outlook, then
perhaps this doesn't matter, but I think it's worth the money to do this
right. Just my $.02.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Possible mail server switch
- From: Gretchen Hembree
- Re: Possible mail server switch
- Prev by Date: Re: Problems dismounting USB drive
- Next by Date: Automate ASR Backup process?
- Previous by thread: Problems dismounting USB drive
- Next by thread: Re: Possible mail server switch
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
