My IT department has a dilemma. Our current mail server is running on a generic beige-box ooollld PC running linux. It was set up for us by a consultant ~5 years ago, running Debian I believe. We are a Microsoft shop, offering a service that runs on custom software we’ve developed. Ironically, this mail server has been the most stable out of everything we’ve had.
The problem is that the mail server is starting to show it’s age. I believe it’s been updated semi-regularly, but it is essentially a black box to us. It runs SpamAssassin, but we’re still overrun with spam. We don’t really have any idea what our mail load is; most mail is downloaded off to local clients in the office (using Outlook) via POP…some of us use IMAP, but we aren’t the heavy mail users. Of most concern, though, is the beige-box hardware has started to show signs of failing. The mail drives themselves are backed up and have RAID, but still.
Due to a database server upgrade, we now have available a pretty decent server-grade box to “play with”. We’ve talked about how re-building a mail server from scratch would give us a better understanding of how things work, and allow us to better maintain things. I have some linux experience now since the original server was built, and feel like I could reasonably work through the setup with enough research.
What we’re debating, though, is whether to rebuild a straight linux mail server, or to jump to MS Exchange. The server we have available would be more than adequate for a linux system; it would fly on it. It’s still a 32-bit CPU, though, and if we went with Exchange we’d want to go with 2007, so we’d eventually need all new hardware for a production system. It sounds like I can do a test setup of Exchange 2007 on this, though.
The stability and hands-off nature of the linux setup interests me. But there is also a pressing need for a true groupware solution in the office. We have an Active Directory domain. Aside from the tech department (which uses Thunderbird and IMAP), all other users use Outlook 2003 and POP or IMAP. We do have a need for calendaring, and resource scheduling would be nice, too. So, we could go and basically just rebuild what we already have, with updated software and hardware….or go a completely different route, solve all the requirements but be stuck on Exchange with its own set of problems.
Are there any truly good solutions out there that really compete with Exchange? I need something that seamlessly works with Outlook, that includes calendar and task scheduling support. I’ve seen mentioned Citadel, and it looks close, but I don’t think the Outlook support was really there? It sounds like I could possibly piece together different parts of open source packages and build a sort-of solution, but I can’t seem to find anything that really honest-to-goodness does everything that the Exchange-Outlook combo does, without sacrificing some essential functionality or another.
Any tips or advice? Thanks!
