Cons: No compression in message store; no Unix server platforms; no redundancy

Microsoft deftly solves MegaSystems' requirements with Exchange Server 5.0, Outlook and Outlook Web Access clients. Exchange offers a robust messaging infrastructure with native support for both Internet and Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standards, such as SMTP and X.400. Outlook provides a wealth of advanced user features including quick access to calendars, the ability to retrieve multiple attachments at one time, the ability to recall a sent message (within the Microsoft environment), contact management and browser-based access to features and functions.

Microsoft's ultimate solution design includes the installation of a Windows NT server with Exchange Server 5.0, Internet Information Server (IIS) and an Octel Communications Corp. Unified Messaging voicemail server at each of the 10 MegaSystems' locations. Single fax and wireless paging servers are located in the Los Angeles and Manhattan sites, respectively. Migration plans suggest converting all Windows-based e-mail users to Outlook 97 and providing Outlook Web Access clients for Apple Computer Macintosh and Unix users.

All major Exchange components--Directory Services, Information Store, Connectors--run as NT services and are integrated with NT server management functions, such as Performance Monitor, Link Monitor and Event Viewer. This level of integration with NT gives users a single logon and makes it easy for Exchange administrators to import all NT users on the server into the Exchange directory. Other administrative tools include wizards for setup and configuration, automatic detecti on and replication of new site servers, SMTP and NNTP connectivity, SNMP support and enhanced message tracking.

Exchange offers a write-ahead transacted message store, providing up-to-the-minute accuracy for backups and restores. This increases the reliability of the messaging system, ensuring that messages will not be lost in the event of a disaste r.

Microsoft advised that no additional hardware would be required in its solution design. We feel that the midgrade NetWare file servers that host MegaSystems' cc:Mail application would have to be upgraded to meet the demands of a fully integrated collaborative computing environment. And because Exchange does not provide compression in the message store, as offered by Lotus Development Corp.'s Domino and Novell's GroupWise, upgraded servers become especially crucial. Exchange has a 16-GB limit for private/public stores and the directory, which reduces scalability by limiting the number of users a server will support. Furthermore, Microsoft offered no redund ancy. Exchange is capable of hot backup, but the additional servers and software to make this a fully fault-tolerant environment as specified were not proposed.

The total cost of Microsoft's proposal is $893,564. The major expense in Phase II is the Octel Unified Messaging system for all 10 locations ($600,000). The inclusion of new hardware, server clustering for redundancy and a more cost-effective means of integrating voicemail would have placed Microsoft higher in our final rankings.

Innosoft International's Solution Summary
Innosoft International products supply superior server support for Internet standards, in addition to providing connectivity to the current messaging systems in use at MegaSystems. Innosoft does not propose to provide client software, but we expect to team with a client vendor to provide a complete messaging solution. Developing client software is not part of the Innosoft business plan, but we have lots of experience testing Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) clients against our servers. Choices for IMAP user agents include Mulberry from CyDaSoft, Simeon from The Esys Corp., Z-Mail from NetManage, Embla from TeamWARE Group and many others. In addition, both Netscape Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are beta-testing IMAP user agents. Innosoft does not have any recommendat ions for calendaring and scheduling software. The Internet standards process is just starting to address the issues required to result in an interoperable implementation.

The MegaSystems messaging environment does not represent a particularly large installation by Innosoft standards, so design choices will not be limited by the performance of the messaging system. The suggested system configuration specifies a single server at every large site. It may be preferable to install our PMDF servers at branch sites, but that is a choice that will be made for other than performance reasons.

To download an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format version of the Pricing Summary, click here.
To download an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format version of the vendor's technical specifications, click here.


Updated July 31, 1997