Ideas for Mail and Calendaring for 50,000 Users

[David A. Bandel]

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 09:00:25 -0500
Jason Joines <joines at bus.okstate.edu> wrote:

>   We just got a new CIO at the university where I work.  One thing he
>   is 
> about to do is get rid of all the different mail systems and have one 
> big combined system for all employees and students.  That'll be about 
> 50,000 users.
> 
>   At the moment the predominant faculty/staff mail system is Lotus 
> Domino on windows 2k and the predominant system for students is Sun 
> Internet Mail Server on Solaris.  He intends to replace these with ms 
> exchange on windows 2k.  There is a small chance he will listen to 
> suggestions to consider non-exchange options.
> 
>   Any suggestions?

If he's serious about Exchange with 50k+ users, I suggest you find a new
job (the recent posting to this list comes to mind).  Not even M$ can
get this to work.  You'll need one exchange server per 500 users (so
100+ Win2k systems running Exchange should work) -- or, one Linux box
using something like PowerMail (and PostgreSQL), although I'd suggest 3
systems for good failover capability.

Also, the PowerMail solution will cost you about half a million $$$ less
and not have nearly the headaches.  BTW, to run 100+ Win2k servers,
you'll need at least 10 more Windoze admins too (not included in above
cost savings estimate, so estimate over $1,000,000 in savings per year).

OTOH, if this guys importance is measured in terms of the size of his
budget and not his successful accomplishments, only M$ will do.  M$, the
empire builders' dream.

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
		Nemesis Racing Team motto
GPG key autoresponder:  mailto:david_key at pananix.com
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