Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange
Domino and Exchange get the headlines, but for hosted e-mail they don't necessarily get the business. The reason is simple: scalability.
Enterprise mail servers like Domino and Exchange typically handle thousands of users. Carrier-level servers must handle hundreds of thousands. And, Microsoft-sponsored testing to the contrary, many e-mail service providers question whether Exchange 2000 can handle a global e-mail load.
Still, many Domino and Exchange customers are outsourcing those servers. As Ferris puts it, "[Customers] want to outsource the devil they know inside." As a result, full service xSPs like Intermedia advertise their Internet capable e-mail service, Intermedia Messenger Mail, while also providing Notes-based mail for customers who demand it.
Listen to the pros
In our experience from a customer's viewpoint, neither Exchange nor Domino works well as Internet mail servers. Both products' Web interfaces are frightfully slow. Sure, Exchange and Domino run well with their native clients, Outlook and Notes, respectively. But Outlook is bedeviled with security problems and the Notes client is a classic example of bloated software.
Moreover, Domino and Exchange are not cost-productive for xSPs because "they're very support-intensive," notes Ferris. More support means more cost. And in the price-sensitive world of e-mail, making up those labor costs isn't easy for service providers.
Simon Hayward, a research director at the Gartner Group, puts it another way. In a report titled "Notes-Domino: Your Legacy or Your Future," Hayward writes: "Internet standardisation has effectively reduced e-mail products to commodity status, so there is rarely a business justification for changing from one of the latest generation products to another."
That's an overstatement. Still, it does illuminate one point. Unless your customer is willing to pay extra for an enterprise mail system like Domino or Exchange, you should recommend pure Internet mail servers. The costs are cheaper and the profits certainly are higher.
Take our word for it.
