Microsoft Exchange is probably the most commonly used mail server in enterprises. We would've used Exchange servers on an almost daily basis over the last 12 months in test rigs for various projects. Exchange 2003 builds incrementally on the previous version, and has a greatly improved mobile device support list.
The Exchange application configuration, management and monitoring is via a management console. This console is very straight forward to navigate and administrators can quickly find the particular options they are looking for. More monitoring tools would be a nice addition in the future, particularly real time tools.
While Microsoft have placed an ever growing emphasis on information technology security over the last 12 months. To really reap the benefits of true security without having to spend hour upon hour tweaking, disabling, and reconfiguring processes, services, and applications it is best to begin migrating to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 at the same time as making the move to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 -- this is not to say you can relax your guard as there are still a few advisable security tweaks and precautions one needs to take care of but they are just a lot less and a lot more straightforward.
Microsoft has finally realised it is not worthwhile trying to ship a product that tries to be everything to everyone with all bells and whistles running and open from the initial install, instead it leaves it up to the owner to install and start only the components they need the machine to handle... mostly.
Overall, a wise step forward for Microsoft and slightly better to manage and maintain mail server than previous incarnations. Added mobile device and remote mail support may be advantages to some enterprises.
|
 Click to enlarge
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interesting review, however, it misses in a nunber of areas.
1) At the low end of the market, the appropriate Microsoft product would be SBS2003. It is quite difficult to price the e-mail component as a number of products are bundled, however, I suspect the SBS2003 is a more appropriate product when compared with some of the lower end e-mail systems you have reviewed. Are you comparing apples with apples? or apples to oranges?
2) The the high-end of the market where clustering / high availability and a large number of users is concerned most of the reviewed packages couldn't deliver. Where is the indication of where these products sit in terms of number of users?
3) The most important criteria for purchasing an e-mail system has not even been considered, i.e. user understanding and productivity. Given the article asks the question about alternatives to Exchange, surely there needs to be some indication as to why customers continually purchase this product. And the answer is they understand how to use the client interface, i.e. Outlook, and individuals are productive. My feedback from people is they hate Notes (especially after using Outlook / Exchange) and they love the functionality and integration that Outlook / Exchange provides. An e-mail system is provided to enhance user/worker productivity and, essentially, they don't give a stuff about the e-mail server. They want functionality they can easily use on their client device and this is what IT Managers respond to.
4) I would suggest you have under-estimated Notes and Exchange for their back-end automation. Notes is a powerful database / workflow solution that provides much more than e-mail, so if you have such a requirement the other e-mail solutions look very ordinary. Likewise with Exchange, there is a huge amount automation / programming that can be achieved and an organisation with such requirements would seek a single solution rather than 2 separate systems.
Regards,
Russell Sumich