[TriLUG] I see an exchange server in my future

Jim Davis davisjcd at alum.mit.edu
Tue Aug 15 20:10:58 EDT 2006


Criteria for evaluation, in no particular order:

-- full collaboration, including calendaring, tasks, contacts, email, etc.
All the stuff that Exchange does.  Kerio does that part pretty well.

-- cheap.  Free is better, but my school system is not skilled in Linux
sysadmin, except for one sharp individual (not me).  MS Exchange with the
education discounts was close to the cheapest option, by the way.

-- integration with all PDAs, like CrackBerries, Q, Treo, Win devices.
Kerio is a little weak here with BB, but does integrate with the others.  

-- works with a heavily Apple environment.  Yes, the techs who administer
the Apple servers can do a little UNIX-like stuff, but we're really focused
on desk side support.  You really only get the full experience with Exchange
through the web if you run Internet Explorer, and that is not supported by
Microsoft for Apples machines anymore.  Even with the relative immunity of
Apple machines to spy ware and viruses, the lack of browser support gave me
pause.

-- Not too demanding on client hardware.  Zimbra works beautifully if you're
running a new machine, but we have Apple machines that are 15 years old
still providing good service.  Yes, 15 years old.  BenGay is a major
consumable for these machines.  

-- let's users choose their client.  We have some running POP clients,
others MAPI, others IMAP.  Some use Outlook, others just web access, other
Entourage.  Haven't tried it with Thunderbird, but I'd bet Kerio does fine.

When I was doing the evaluation, I worked directly with the software
developers, or as close as I could get -- pre-sales MS support was the
farthest I was away from coders.  This wasn't the most analytical
evaluation, and the Apple machines are a special factor, but we did the best
we could.  In the end, price vs. performance vs. support led us.

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf
Of Neil L. Little
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 2:16 PM
To: trilug at trilug.org
Subject: RE: [TriLUG] I see an exchange server in my future

Sorry to have taken solong to reply...

Jim,
So in the evaluation that you performed for your school district what 
were the criteria that involved you keeping the Kerio MailServer?
I havent looked at Kerio yet but does that include the calender 
function? Thats the biggie here and why its so hard to get these folks to
even consider being weanned off of Outlook.

Neil Little, WA4AZL
JARS Forever!! ...er TRILUG Too!

> I just performed an evaluation for my school district, looking at Kerio
> MailServer (the incumbent and winner), MS Exchange, CommuniGate, Gordano,
> Zimbra Collaboration Suite, OpenXchange and one other.  I've also used
> GroupWise, which is pretty good.  Our issues were performance, client
> hardware requirements, integration with PDAs and support for the many 
> Apple
> machines in use.  Straight Outlook integration is easy with most of these,
> and Kerio MailServer 6.2 works well, is cheap, supports many OS's.  Kerio
> has a few problems, but its cheapness overcomes them.  Hope this helps!
>
> Regards, Jim

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