The first cab off the rank is IBM with Domino Server 6.5.3. And with an array of access and administration options it is hard to know where to begin.
Firstly, one needs the actual Domino server installed, this in itself is not much to look at, just a console window with text-based status information and events in it. To administer, monitor, and configure this there are two options, the first is Domino Administrator which is a separate standalone application which interfaces with the Domino server.
The second option for administration, and technically more portable as it is Web based, is the browser admininistration interface. Both these administration interfaces are surprisingly similar and give the user full access to the overwhelming myriad of configuration options available.
Users accessing their e-mails have three Lotus specific interfaces to choose from as well as traditional e-mail clients. Although with many specific features available most deployments of Domino would be matched with a Lotus client. The three Lotus e-mail clients are, Lotus Notes, Domino Web Access, and Webmail.
Lotus Notes is a standalone e-mail client residing on the users desktop. Domino Web Access is accessed via a Web browser and is a rich browser client using dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML), Webmail is a lightweight HTML client also accessed via a Web browser and is far simpler.
All in all, Lotus has put together a very configurable and customisable mail system with many options available to allow clients and systems integrators to tailor the system to the enterprises needs. If you are after a large-scale mail server then add Domino to your shortlist for evaluation.
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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