[olug] Exchange, Expectations and Enterprise

[Dave Thacker]

And the supplicant asked the Oracle:  Why are so many companies converting to 
MS-Exchange, when we all know it sucks?

I'm not a fan of Exchange.  From the outside it looks big, bloated, and prone 
to failure.  However....
When you start moving in to the thousands of desktops range, organizations 
expect the latest features on a platform that will minimize training and 
support costs.   If your desktop base is predominantly Windows, then Exchange 
becomes a *very* easy choice to make.   If you are using Active Directory, 
the choice becomes even easier.  As far as I can see, any equivalent product 
loses it's cost advantage when you add in the cost of training and support 
for a few thousand people.  If it's not a Microsoft product, the integration 
can get very ugly.  Redmond takes care of their own software line-up, and at 
this point in time, are just beginning to understand they need to work and 
play well with others.  
I spent a year looking for the Exchange Killer(EK).  In December of 2004, I 
came to the conclusion that any serious threat to Exchange from Open Source 
was at least 12-24 months away.   At this point in time, I see no reason to 
revise that forecast.   To be a real success, the EK is going to have to be 
able to communicate with Exchange, and at the same time advance an open 
messaging/calendaring platform to the point where Microsoft will have to pay 
attention to that new platform,   That's a tall order, demanding well-funded, 
disciplined development.  OSAF's Chandler project looks promising, but 
they've been coding for over a year and are just now getting a usable product 
out the door.  Novell has just released a bunch of groupware code to open 
source, hoping to generate some interest in a competing messaging 
architecture.  Ars Technicha reports that Novell's Hula seems to be a good 
start of a messaging, calendaring infrastructure, but is a long ways away 
from prime time.  
At this point, there doesn't seem to be anything else out there to put 
pressure on MS for calendaring/messaging,  and as long as that continues, 
you'll continue to see companies go for Exchange.   

You owe the Oracle a meeting on Friday the 13th during the next odd numbered 
leap year.

DT