[WinMac] Re: E-Mail System Research
Phillip Corchary(corchary[at]apple.com)
Wed, 07 Oct 1998 09:45:14 -0600
>I am researching a new e-mail system for our mixed Macintosh and Windows
>user base.
>
>SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
> - Support 500 Mac & Windows clients retrieving/sending 20 messages daily
> - Centralized address book
>
>OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
> - Forms, such as those provided by CESoft's QuickMail or Microsoft
>Exchange
> - Groupware functionality for calendar sharing, etc.
>
>We are trying to get away from CESoft's QuickMail LAN/Internet Mail Gateway
>package as our needs are beyond its capabilities. Comments on what you are
>doing in your cross-platform environment are greatly appreciated.
open-standards email system. This means one that not only supports but is
actually at it's core an SMTP mail router with either POP or IMAP4 as client
protocols. To get a central directory, you can implement an LDAP directory.
Before I started my current job, I worked on a number of email projects, all
using proprietary mail systems, and supporting from 1000 to 60,000 clients
(Mac and PC). And I found that while there are special features, such as
those you mention, like forms, calendaring, etc. in many of the proprietary
systems, the trade off is that you are tied to one vendor and their support
and product paths (or lack there of). Also, you generally have to employ
additional gateways to exchange email with other systems (Internet, other
internal systems you may have, etc.)
OTOH, SMTP mail system (IMO) are the only mail system that can easily scale
from small systems (a few dozen users) to very large scale systems
(thousands, tens of thousands or more). And since SMTP is what all Internet
mail is based on, you will have fewer problems exchanging email with those
outside of your environment. Plus if you implement an open standards system
you can choose from a variety of client software on all platforms.
There are many ways to run an SMTP/POP/IMAP system. An UNIX (including
Linux) on either PowerPC or Intel hardware would work well for which there
are many flavors of email software, both public domain and commercial. Most
of the proprietary systems like Exchange support Internet standard mail, but
it's not a core function - it's an add-on and either costs additional money,
or introduces additional complexity and latency into mail delivery.
Of course I would be remiss if I didn't briefly mention that Apple
Computer's AppleShare IP 6 server is an SMTP mail server that supports POP
and IMAP client protocols.
DISCLAIMER: All personal and professional opinions presented herein are my
own and do not, in any way, represent the opinion or policy of Apple
Computer, Inc.
Phillip Corchary, Sr. Systems Engineer
Apple Computer, Inc., Denver CO
corchary@apple.com / 303-202-9883
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