Which Email Server Solution?

[mh10190]

Hello
I recently started a Web company
And i am wondering
I need a all in one messaging solution for my employees computers
We will be moving into new offices by the begining of next year
and by that time Office 2007, and Vista will be out
And wat i want to do is setup a server
that has

Windows Server
Active Directory
Desktop Managment
Exchange
Live Communications Server

And all the computers will have

Windows Vista
Office 2007
Other Applications
Outlook 2007/Outlook Web Access for Email
Office Live Communicator
Office Live Meeting

And everyone will have Windows Mobile Smart phones

This is all just a plan im gonna give my IT guy
I personally love Linux and Open source
The web app actually will run solely on a LAMP infrastructure
But im wondering
Is it possible to accomplish my communications needs with open source
keep in mind that Exchange will give all 3 interfaces (Outlook, Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile) complete syncronicty

What do you think

[BandC]

I have no idea on what your business sector, plan, budget is but isn't this really expensive? The list includes a ton of software you need to buy. Unless you need the Windows platform for your business, I believe there is an open source alternative for most of the software listed above (except probably Outlook Mobile / Windows Smart Phones). But of course if you go with open source on all of these you probably need a "really" good IT guy(s) who knows his stuff.

[mh10190]

Web company
We have the budget to buy this stuff

I am wondering if the same type of syncronicity is possible with Open Source

[desipher]

What do you linux for? All my servers I run on my network on open source. Sounds like you need windows enviorment because of all the applications you run. Linux doesn't intergrate well with windows apps. I do alot of digital media and my workstations run windows and I have quicktime streaming server that runs on mac OSX and my mail and webserver run linux.

[elliss]

There are several commercial products that run on Linux, although they are either closed-source or only partially open. Two things spring to mind:

- Zimbra collaboration server (www.zimbra.com) seems to do what you require with desktop, Web, and Mobile access. It's built from Open Source components, and a free OS edition is available. The commercial version has extra proprietary components, and tech. support from the company.

- Take a look at the Novell portfolio (Open Enterprise Server, eDirectory, GroupWise groupware, ZenWorks systems management). Building your infrastructure with Novell enables you to support both Windows and Linux, and some of these products are acknowledged to be superior to the MS offerings.

Also, two words of warning:

- The Vista Enterprise edition will only be available through subscription agreements with MS, so Vista clients may mean being locked into annual fees.

- Whichever groupware solution you use, double-check your exit strategy. Your email data is so vital that if a vendor locks you in there they can essentially dictate terms. Exchange in particular is a great example of vendor leverage - to use it fully you must commit to other MS client and server products, and the associated costs.

[mh10190]

So if i call up Novell
can they take care of everything

And does IBM offer something like this
and ifso
who is better

Novell or IBM

[elliss]

Novell can be a one-stop shop, as they have management and collaboration products, and Linux server and desktop distributions as well. That's really just a statement, rather than a recommendation - as always, if you don't have your own technical people run trial setups to map out how data will be managed in your environment before you commit to an architecture, then you will deserve the stress you will suffer later :)

I'm personally interested in Zimbra for groupware because the product appears to hit both marks - feature set, and stores data in a fairly clean way. The lack of ties to a particular platform is also reassuring. It would be nice if they didn't keep some of the code closed, but it's a lot more open than the established products...

IBM have a sophisticated workflow and collaboration range with Notes, Domino etc., but this is probably overkill for most organizations. I haven't looked very closely at IBM's software, since it's beyond what we need...