Email

sharptech

Hello all,

Our company is looking for a new email server. We are a small company (40-50) users.

What are some suggestions for email? We currently run all Linux based servers, so implementing an Exchange server probably is not in our scope - however it could be.

What are some suggestions/what do some of your companys use?

Thank you

RTmarc

What do you use for email client currently?

Microsoft Windows SBS 2003 might be an option.

Personally speaking, we are a tight Microsoft organization and run Exchange 2007.

sharptech

Hello RT,

Currently we run the linux based Scalix that uses Microsoft Outlook. However we have experienced a lot of problems with that product so far and we are researching other options.

As far as Microsoft products/servers go - there are a lot of security holes within Microsoft products so someone would have to watch the server all the time and as of now we can't dedicate the time.

Is SBS a good way around that or would that be a problem still?

One product I found was Zimbra: http://www.zimbra.com/

Anyone have any experience with this? Is it good/bad etc..

RTmarc

sharptech wrote:

As far as Microsoft products/servers go - there are a lot of security holes within Microsoft products so someone would have to watch the server all the time and as of now we can't dedicate the time.

I whole heartedly disagree with this statement. I'm not trying to be rude or abrasive so please don't take it that way. If you configure Exchange/AD correctly the first time, there are very few issues that arise. As long as you keep patch management under control (WSUS or similar product) you should have no security issues. The key to Exchange - and all network security - is layered, end-to-end security. I'll use my company for example, all email traffic is passed through and scanned by the firewall and several other appliances before it ever hits our servers. We stay on top of all Windows updates and patches and obviously have anti-virus running on all servers and workstations. Are we 100% secure? No, and the honest truth is that no one can ever be 100% secure. That being said, we have gone above and beyond due diligence and that's all that can be asked of you.

I would highly suggest using Exchange since it's the best email solution available (in my opinion of course). Exchange 2007 is definitely the way to go if you have the time and resources available to devote to a proper deployment.

By the way, do you already have a Windows domain setup or is it strictly workgroup?

sharptech

Hi RT,

Yes we have a domain - it is currently running on NT technology however.

I will have to talk with our Network Technician - he really did not want to go the exchange route and he is very knowledgeable when it comes to network security.

Another concern with Exchange of course is the pricing. I know exchange is expensive and you have to pay per license. Lets say we expand and we have 80 users. How much (roughly) would it cost to get an Exchange server, Windows Server 2003 and have 80 email addresses?

I know exchange is the best solution - I never had a problem with it in previous working environments.

I am not saying we would never go with it, just checking all possible options.

Thank you

Gabe7055

I myself live and die by Exchange but if you just really don't want to go that way than try Lotus Notes for your email. I am pretty sure since it is IBM it has a Linux version and it's fairly cheap from what I hear.

RTmarc

sharptech wrote:

Hi RT,

Yes we have a domain - it is currently running on NT technology however.

I will have to talk with our Network Technician - he really did not want to go the exchange route and he is very knowledgeable when it comes to network security.

Another concern with Exchange of course is the pricing. I know exchange is expensive and you have to pay per license. Lets say we expand and we have 80 users. How much (roughly) would it cost to get an Exchange server, Windows Server 2003 and have 80 email addresses?

I know exchange is the best solution - I never had a problem with it in previous working environments.

I am not saying we would never go with it, just checking all possible options.

Thank you

Small Business Server might be the way to go. It comes packaged with Exchange Server. Also, you don't buy individual licenses for Exchange. You buy the server and then you do what ever you want with it from there.

That being said, SBS is a little different with their licensing. It might be better for you to install a Windows Server 2003 as well as a free-standing Exchange server (obviously, if you were to go this route) than attempt to do so with SBS. You would just have to check the pricing.

Sorry to derail the thread. I know you were looking for an email system solution.

sharptech

Thanks RT,

I will look into the SBS solution when doing an evaluation - I will let you know if anything comes up as far as questions.

Thanks!

Silver Bullet

What kind of problems are you guys having with Scalix?

I have run it in a test environment for a while and have it deployed at a couple businesses and haven't had any problems so far?

I am just curious.

sprkymrk

sharptech wrote:

Yes we have a domain - it is currently running on NT technology however.

I will have to talk with our Network Technician - he really did not want to go the exchange route and he is very knowledgeable when it comes to network security.

Then I would guess you are still on NT due to funding issues? Because anyone very knowledgable about security just went " " when they heard you are still running an NT domain in 2007.

As far as linux email solutions there are too many to count, most based on sendmail or postfix, but with several other options as well. Much depends on how you want the clients configured. If you want to keep the Exchange-like environment you could try open-xchange, which is open source.

silentc1015

sharptech wrote:

Hello all,

Our company is looking for a new email server. We are a small company (40-50) users.

What are some suggestions for email? We currently run all Linux based servers, so implementing an Exchange server probably is not in our scope - however it could be.

What are some suggestions/what do some of your companys use?

Thank you

I used postfix for over two years in a mail system utilized by over 40,000 users. It worked great. I hear qmail is good also, but I have no experience with it.

sharptech

Silver Bullet wrote:

What kind of problems are you guys having with Scalix?

I have run it in a test environment for a while and have it deployed at a couple businesses and haven't had any problems so far?

I am just curious.

A big problem has been the smart cache feature. This has caused an extreme amount of problems and it really has hurt a lot of users.

sharptech

sprkymrk wrote:

sharptech wrote:

Yes we have a domain - it is currently running on NT technology however.

I will have to talk with our Network Technician - he really did not want to go the exchange route and he is very knowledgeable when it comes to network security.

Then I would guess you are still on NT due to funding issues? Because anyone very knowledgable about security just went " " when they heard you are still running an NT domain in 2007.

As far as linux email solutions there are too many to count, most based on sendmail or postfix, but with several other options as well. Much depends on how you want the clients configured. If you want to keep the Exchange-like environment you could try open-xchange, which is open source.

LOL - yes when the company started funds were of course low - however now it has expanded so we have a lot of different options - one of them of course going and upgrading to exchange/Server 2003.

I will look into the open-xchange to - thank you.