That's the funny things about MS Exchange
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tracyanne Aug 30, 2008 12:16 AM EDT |
The company I [edit] work for uses MS Exchange server, but all we use it for is email, so what's the point od spending that money. But of course the reason my boss uses exchange is because it came with his MSDN subscription. The point is that most of the exchange server installations don't use anything but email, and the groupware functionality is just so much overhead. |
| rijelkentaurus Aug 30, 2008 12:25 AM EDT |
Good point. My company tends to install SBS, which includes Exchange and Sharepoint, but few companies use sharepoint at all, and few even use Public folders in Exch...email only, almost always. Seems a waste and a huge application to weigh down a server with when you don't use it. The "feature set" Exch offers is an empty argument in almost every case. Yes, some make extensive use of it, but they are, in my experience, in the minority...particularly in the SMB market. And as far as Outlook being the most popular email client...each license of Exchange includes a license for Outlook, so in effect it is a free (not Free) option. You don't have to buy Office to get it if you have Exchange. |
| tuxchick Aug 30, 2008 1:48 AM EDT |
Outlook is also free with MS Office. Which I guess is the reason for all those dopey OOo reviews that say "OpenOffice is okay except it doesn't come with an email client." It doesn't come with a compiler, RAW converter, or packet sniffer either. Sheesh. I have a special grudge against Exchange. I hatess it. One of the happiest days of my life was when I walked away from my last Exchange server. I wasn't allowed to stab it to death, but at least I didn't have to touch it anymore. It was just like you said- it was pretty much just a POP mail server, and not a very good one. Which was OK with me, because babysitting the groupware functions created three nasty problems: keeping the darn thing running, backing up the horrid binary proprietary giant single-file data store, and persuading PHBs that yes, this Jabba the Groupware Server needs a mainframe just to get out of its own way. Actual client services require a second mainframe. |
| wjl Aug 31, 2008 2:04 PM EDT |
Right. I had to administer Exstrange as well, and while management always gets the idea that "it works just fine" and doesn't have to be replaced by anything, Carla's "babysitting" is a very good description of what it cost me to keep the damned thing running. And yes, backups turn into nightmares as well after a relatively short time. And it's also true that even for smallish companies, it can add up pretty quickly: you need the Enterprise version, you need really capable hardware, all that. Not to mention the whole Active Directory stuff, which you also cannot replace with standard LDAP solutions in that case. That company I worked for doesn't exist anymore, and I'm glad that since then, I could leave all of this behind. I dropped all the chains and use only open source since then, and I surely won't ever look back. As to other companies with that kind of IT landscape, I often say "thanks, but no thanks" to them when they approach me. Sometimes I get funny looks when I tell them that all this cannot be administered, or when I simply throw the "IT Crowd" solution at them: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" |
| jdixon Aug 31, 2008 10:42 PM EDT |
> The company I [edit] work for uses MS Exchange server, but all we use it for is email... I'm sure there are folks out there who use the groupware functions of Exchange, just as there are folks who use the groupware functions of Notes, but I've never met anyone who did. The company I work for currently uses Notes, but they're expecting to migrate to Exchange sometime in the next year or two. 75% of the employees never use Notes for anything but email. Of the remaining 25%, 80% of those only access the occasional Notes database. Almost nobody uses the real groupware features. Most people would be better served with IMAP email clients and an IMAP server, at a considerably lower cost. |
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