Help me avoid Exchange

[Ben Scott]

  Some general comments...

  Cost: Exchange is expensive.  Typically, you need a license for the
Exchange server, a license for the Windows Server, a client license
for Exchange, a client license for Windows Server, a license for
anti-virus on Exchange, a client license for AV, a backup software
license, and goodness knows what else if you have more third-party
software.  It also tends to eat computrons (RAM, CPU, disk) faster
then Cyrus.

  That being said, if the IT department already pays for all of that,
the cost issues evaporate.  That sounds like what Mr. VP is saying:
Why are we paying for email when we could get it "for free"?  If it's
IT's problem, then it doesn't matter *what* they're running on the
server.

  Security: I've never seen a properly administered Exchange server
get "owned" or anything like that.  The security issues are all on the
client side.

  Exception: OWA (Outlook Web Access) is a big exposure, because
you've got to open an inside-all-the-firewalls Exchange server running
IIS to the public Internet.  Even if you use a dedicated front-end OWA
box, you still need all the Microsoft RPC open to the back-end box. 
Ack.  If you *must* run OWA, I suggest putting some kind of
intermediate guardian box between it and the Internet.  But again,
this is IT's problem.

  Backup/restore: Expensive and cumbersome.  You have to backup and
restore the entire Information Store (Exchange database) as a whole. 
You can't properly backup or restore a single mailbox.  To restore a
single mailbox, you have to restore onto an alternate server.  
Deleted item retention can help this a lot, but it's not the same. 
But again, that's IT's problem.

  The point that Dan Jenkins raises WRT storage demands is a good one.
 Exchange storage tends to "cost more" then Unix mail storage.  This
is especially true if you're on Exchange Standard, which has a 16 GB
limit (or 75 GB for Exch 2003 Std).  If you hit that, you have to drop
significant cash on a license upgrade.

  That being said, one thing Exchange does bring to the table is SIS
(Single Instance Storage).  If one luser mails a 50 MB PowerPoint file
to everybody in the company, Exchange only stores one copy of the
file.  Depending on your usage patterns, that may make a big
difference, or none at all.

  The best advice I can give to Paul is to have somebody (maybe the
most picky/demanding user) give IMAP-on-Exchange a go on a trial
basis.  If it works for him/her, and nobody in IT complains about
their usage, then Mr. VP is prolly right in saying "Make it not our
problem".  OTOH, this may uncover some aspect of your specific
environment that makes Exchange a bad choice.

-- Ben