Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-11 Thread Stan Hoeppner
On 12/10/2013 8:15 AM, Charles Marcus wrote: There has been some whispers about considering migrating our mail systems to Exchange Server. I want to try to nip this in the bud. I would like to ask for some help with providing some kind of comparison of large(r) commercial companies use of

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-11 Thread Alan McGinlay - SICS
On 2013-12-11 11:36, Stan Hoeppner wrote: On 12/10/2013 8:15 AM, Charles Marcus wrote: There has been some whispers about considering migrating our mail systems to Exchange Server. I want to try to nip this in the bud. I would like to ask for some help with providing some kind of comparison

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-11 Thread Daniele Nicolodi
On 11/12/2013 11:36, Stan Hoeppner wrote: Management should never allow the company to be held hostage, have no options, due to being reliant on a single systems administrator and his/er unique knowledge of the infrastructure. Indeed, it is much better to be held hostage of a huge

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-11 Thread Graham Leggett
On 11 Dec 2013, at 12:36 PM, Stan Hoeppner s...@hardwarefreak.com wrote: The decision whether to stick with FLOSS or move to Exchange boils down to a few things, assuming management is making the decision, not the IT department. Why would you hire an IT department but then not allow the IT

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-11 Thread Dave McGuire
On 12/11/2013 06:36 AM, Graham Leggett wrote: On 11 Dec 2013, at 12:36 PM, Stan Hoeppner s...@hardwarefreak.com wrote: The decision whether to stick with FLOSS or move to Exchange boils down to a few things, assuming management is making the decision, not the IT department. Why would you

[Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-10 Thread Charles Marcus
Hello, There has been some whispers about considering migrating our mail systems to Exchange Server. I want to try to nip this in the bud. I would like to ask for some help with providing some kind of comparison of large(r) commercial companies use of email systems... specifically, those

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-10 Thread Dean
One of the issues you'll face is that Exchange is much more than just a mail server. Once you've begun drinking the Micro$oft koolaid, it's hard to refuse the rest. It does offer a large feature set, and tight integration with a lot of other things. That's both good and bad of course ... While

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-10 Thread Charles Marcus
Thanks for the feedback... Have you had any experience with two separate companies 'merging' their separate Exchange instances? The reason I ask is, it seems to me that in many cases, it might actually be easier to migrate a non Exchange system into an existing Exchange system, than merging

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-10 Thread Dean
Actually yes :) A former company was a mergers/acquisitions maniac, so we faced fairly often. We took the easy way out, not actually merging the Exchange instances, but simply migrating user mailboxes into the main distributed/redundant system. Sometimes reused the acquired HW to expand the

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-10 Thread Steve Thompson
On Tue, 10 Dec 2013, Charles Marcus wrote: There has been some whispers about considering migrating our mail systems to Exchange Server. I want to try to nip this in the bud. What kind of clients will be used? If they are all or mostly IMAP, forget all about Exchange. Not only is it a

Re: [Dovecot] OT: Large corporate email systems - Exchange vs open source *nix based

2013-12-10 Thread Massimo Cetra
On 10/12/2013 15:15, Charles Marcus wrote: Hello, There has been some whispers about considering migrating our mail systems to Exchange Server. I want to try to nip this in the bud. Another hint: Exchange is a really big PITA for its storage. Backups and reimports are really slow and buggy.