I'm doing a case study where I have to implement an email system into a hospital for 350 users.
I've decided to go with Exchange 07 as my email server but I'd like to discuss some advantages/disadvantages of open source servers like Sendmail and Qmail.
Any ideas on what reasons I could give for going with Exchange over Open Source?
Exchange is a lot easier to administrate than sendmail, especially if you are already using Windows servers on the network. Most email anti-spam or anti-virus systems integrate easily as well.
Exchange also gives you the ability to do calendars and public folders, which sendmail does not. Being able to do global address lists and such that are administered on the server are also very useful.
Yeah seems a few companies (not many) use Groupwise but large majority use Exchange - Outlook. I'm just finding it really hard to give concrete reasons to use Exchange over notes or Groupwise.
I've found the following site but they lean towards the dark side
http://itcomparison.com/Mail/E.....lotus8.htm
All I need is about 3 or 4 concrete reasons for exchange!!
Mike and The Geek, I would suggest that you do more than simply go to the Microsoft marketing site to find a justification for your decision. You have a hospital that saves peoples lives and they are looking to you for the best solution for an Enterprise Email system and you are getting advice to simply go to a MS Marketing site to find justification. How about the recent report by Radicati, a US based Email analyst firm that stated that Exchange goes down about 4 times as often as GroupWise.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com.....llion.html
And yes, THE GEEK, Novell GroupWise is still around and it quite popular with institutions like Fire Departments, Police Departments, Hospitals, and Governments. All the types of organizations that absolutely need their information to be available and at a price point that doesn't steal from their more critical budget items.
Mike, it is appalling that you have been hired to provide the best consulting yet simply want to find justification for your preconceived idea of what you want to put in, not what is best for your client.
Mike, you are a Microsoft Tester, you should be able to find enough information from Microsoft themselves without coming out here.
And THE GEEK. Come on, you can do better than that to simply take the easy answer and suggest marketing as a legitimate answer to a serious question.
For an installation with only 350 users already on a Windows network, I'll recommend Exchange every time since it integrates so nicely with Sharepoint, Outlook, and provides all the calendaring and collaboration features that are really needed. If the installation was 5000 users I'd probably recommend looking for something else, and if it was really mission critical they wouldn't be using Windows servers in the first place.
I'm an extremely busy person with a regular day job, so I am left with very little time on my hands to answer questions in depth on this forum, or elsewhere. My answer was essentially the same as yours (look it up yourself), just much shorter, less rude, and unpaid.
richardbliss, I'm doing a "CASE STUDY" for college where I have to implement an email system in a training hospital. I'm just looking for reasons to justify my choice for Exchange over an Open Source/ Lotus option for a basic email system.
Thanks for any input on this, all help is really appreciated
I apologize for the rudeness.
Both of your points are well made. I will still disagree but will attempt to do it with a lot more civility.
I should not have let the frustration cause me to send such a scrorcher. Thanks for responding with calmness and allowing me to recover a little dignity.
My disagreement is with the overwhelming cost of deploying a Microsoft Exchange system for 350 users.
Thanks for the explanations.
Richard Bliss
When looking into the costs of both packages I've found the prices to be:
1 x 699 = 699 (Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition)
350 x 67 = 23,450 (Exchange Server 2007 Standard CAL)
Total Cost = $24,149
(Outlook is bundled with the pc's im getting)
And
Domino Messaging Express = 102 x 350 = $35,700
Does this seem right to you??
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