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| How to choose the right mail server for you... | |
How to choose the right mail server for you. . . |
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OverviewIn most cases, selection of
a mail server product will be heavily influenced by a technical and functional
assessment of the software. The following considerations are relevant as part of the mail server product selection process:
Product functionalityOver time, mail server products and
what they are expected to provide, has changed. Nowadays, mail servers
provide more functionality than simply sending and providing access to
messages. Most mail servers provide the same
or similar core features (For example, POP, SMTP, IMAP, Web Mail). The
decision becomes more complicated if specific functional requirements
are considered. Although most mail servers will support basic mail
access protocols, there are subtle differences in functionality
provided by different products. In such a situation, drawing up a
requirements matrix of your functional requirements may be useful in
determining the most suitable product for you. Any vendor-published functionality
comparison is likely to be subjective to that mail server (even more
so if the feature matrix is compares functionality with other mail
server offerings). As such, you may choose to go through a process of
aggregating the published lists of all short listed mail server
products and comparing the functionality. This can be a time-consuming
process, but to facilitate this comparison, MailEnable publishes a
comprehensive feature matrix on the web site. For reasons of subjectivity, MailEnable does not attempt to
provide any assessment of the functionality provided by other mail
server vendors. The feature matrix is available at http://www.mailenable.com/features.asp It is possible to obtain un-biased
opinions through public forums (where customers can publish their
experience/opinions). The issue here is that the qualifications or
credibility of the poster is not always known. Unsolicited testimonials from MailEnable customers are often volunteered on the MailEnable Discussion Forum. This is available at: http://forum.mailenable.com or see user comments on MailEnable at Download.com. Capacity planning/scalabilityIn selecting a mail server for a
larger size implementation, scalability may be a factor in
decision-making. For those only requiring a couple of hundred users, the scalability of the mail server may not be as critical as those seeking to support thousands of users. Any decent mail server will
reliably support hundreds of mailboxes, but some servers may not be
able to scale out to sustain significantly more users.
Generally speaking, any reasonably current and appropriately
configured server running MailEnable will sustain thousands of
mailboxes (even with some reasonably high concurrent usage by these
mailbox owners). The most common questions to be asked in terms of capacity planning are 'how many users will the product support on my hardware?' or 'what hardware is required to support a certain number of users?' Unfortunately, it is not a question
of saying 'hardware configuration X will support Y number of users
with services A,B,C,D,'. Consideration of the number of services
required, the level of concurrent service usage, the performance of
the IO subsystem, the level of logging required, etc all play roles in
sizing the requirements of the messaging platform. Therefore, it may be better to
consider any published hardware specifications of a known production
system and the number of users supported. For example, many users on
the MailEnable forum have outlined their hardware configuration and
the number of users sustained. It is also important to select the
right product for the size of your implementation.
In the case of MailEnable, the Enterprise Edition product is
designed to handle large-scale implementation (over 5000 mailboxes)
Enterprise Edition can be used in conjunction with MySQL or SQL Server
for managing configuration data. This removes the contention in
updating the underlying .TAB files associated with Professional and
Standard Editions. For information on specific configurations with MailEnable, please see the Scalability White Paper. MailEnable provides the Capacity
Planning White Paper to outline how to add more hardware to facilitate
more users. Product architecture/integration extensibilityIt may be required for the mail
server integrate with other software, or at least provide a means to
facilitate such integration (e.g. through an API). Assessing the architecture of a
mail server largely requires a review of the inner workings of the
mail server itself. As mentioned earlier, most mail servers will
provide core functionality and are in most cases comparable in terms
of speed. The efficiency and elegance of the 'way' the
functionality is provided is something that can be particularly
relevant should integration be required. The architecture is also
integral in determining how effectively the mail server will scale to
support multiple users. For example, MailEnable uses an
internal queuing mechanism to route messages between connectors. This
model facilitates others to develop their own connectors or agents
that are called during the routing process. MailEnable has an extensive developer Application Programming Interface (API). The API and an extensive array of code samples can be downloaded from the Developer Tools Page. Platform requirementsMost enterprise level mail server
solutions require extra hardware and often need very powerful,
expensive servers. Not to mention RAM, the latest hard drive
technology and a raft of other subsystems. MailEnable is a lean and
robust program that has comparatively modest system requirements. The minimum hardware and software requirements for MailEnable are listed online at: http://www.mailenable.com/requirements.asp Peripheral tools/integration (statistics, spam, antivirus, etc)In some cases, there may be an
overriding tool or product that drives the mail server product
selection process. For example, a customer may already own a control
panel application (e.g. Ensim, Plesk, Hosting Controller, etc) and it
may be imperative that this software interface with the mail server
software. In other circumstances, the ability
of the mail server to either provide its own statistics/billing or
provide necessary output to such a system may also be particularly
relevant in choosing the product. A corporate license for a particular antivirus software product may be held and it may be necessary to ensure that the mail server can integrate with that particular software product. The suggested approach here is to
take advantage of the product evaluation periods and test any such
interoperability between products. MailEnable provides generous
evaluation periods of 90 days. Fully
functional evaluation copies can be downloaded from http://www.mailenable.com/download.asp For details of control panel
software products that integrate with MailEnable, please see: http://www.mailenable.com/partners_controlpanels.asp For a list of antivirus products that integrate with MailEnable, please see: http://www.mailenable.com/features/antivirus.asp Migration simplicityMigrating from one mail system to
another mail system can be a costly exercise. Depending on the size of
the installation, it can take at least one day to plan and migrate a
server from one system to another. In some cases, the labor cost
associated with the migration amounts to more than the
product/licensing cost. The openness of the configuration
data and message store, as well as the availability of migration tools
is important when selecting a mail server. It is wise to explore how
to migrate messages and configuration data to a new platform should
this be required. Some products are a closed door in this respect and
whilst they are easy to import/migrate to, they are very difficult to
migrate from. When migrating to a mail server it
is important to consider the format of the mail server message store
(usually MBOX or MDIR format). Avoid
proprietary message stores unless they have conversion or access
interfaces to allow you to migrate messages from the store. In terms of configuration
information (mailbox names, list names, email addresses, user
passwords, etc), it is also important that you can reasonably export
such configuration data. MailEnable
allows you to export this information in .csv (comma separated values)
format, or import Windows users and automate the process of creating
mailboxes, passwords, quotas etc. MailEnable has some generic migration tools available on-line at http://www.mailenable.com/addons_Conversion.asp Ease of installationThe mail server should be easy to
set up and administer. The
default installation settings should be configured in such a way that
it can be ready for use as a mail server for those mail administrators
who are less experienced in mail server configuration. MailEnable has an inbuilt
installation wizard that guides you logically through the process of
setting up your mail server. The
administration program is familiar and easy to use, leveraging the
Microsoft Management Console environment - the interface is simple
and intuitive. MailEnable has installation kits available for download with 90 day evaluation periods. These can be downloaded from http://www.mailenable.com/download.asp SupportProduct support is a critical
factor in determining the purchase of the mail server and needs to be
considered when determining the Total Cost of Ownership.
Support may be provided on a contractual basis or on a per
incident basis. Response times and cost are
significant factors in determining suitability of a particular
software vendor. Some
vendors may provide a low cost solution, but support is charged at a
premium. MailEnable provides premium support
to all registered users at a reasonable cost. Every support call is
tracked, documented and responded to.
Most issues can be resolved within one business day. New users are provided with two complimentary support tokens
upon purchasing - these tokens are valid for three months. MailEnable's Support policy is
online at http://www.mailenable.com/policies/support.asp In addition to email and telephone support, MailEnable provides comprehensive documentation on every product, a searchable knowledge base, online help and user forum. The MailEnable product range includes extensive logging and diagnostic reporting to expedite the support process. Updates/upgradesRegular updates/upgrades should be
provided to ensure that the latest features are made available to
users. MailEnable's policy with respect
to upgrades/updates provides users with free software minor version
updates (product versions are recorded as X.Y) where Y indicates the
minor version number and X indicates the major version number. There
is also a free software upgrade to the new major version if you have
purchased MailEnable in the previous 3 months prior to release of the
new version. Registered users who wish to
upgrade Editions will be offered a discount that will be determined at
the time of release. Updates and upgrades should be easy
to implement and not require any reconfiguration.
Upgrading or updating any version of MailEnable is a
straightforward process and gives you the option to retain all of the
current configuration and settings as part of the installation
process. For more information on licensing and upgrading, please see: http://www.mailenable.com/licensing/ Security/hotfixesSecurity is an important issue with
respect to mail servers. The
mail server should be protected against abuse by spammers or other
unauthorized persons. MailEnable has implemented various
security measures including relay control and various methods of
authentication in all mail server products to protect the server
against unauthorized access. In the event that a security issue
is identified with the mail server, the vendor needs to be
appropriately responsive and provide a resolution for that issue in a
timely manner. MailEnable has been able to respond to reported security issues, producing hotfixes in less than one day for identified security issues. CompanyMailEnable is a software company
that specializes solely in the development of high performance mail
server systems for the Windows platform. The company was incorporated in
2002 when the Standard Edition product was ready to market. The
charter for MailEnable was to generate a product that was inexpensive,
designed to be logical and easy to administer, with no per domain or
mailbox licensing. Since then, the company has expanded, but the core focus is still to produce the best solution for the mail hosting market on the Microsoft Windows platform. As well as concentrating on product development, the company has also invested a significant amount of time in enhancing support services to properly address client needs. MailEnable's commitment to excellence is painting a bright for future for both company and customers. User base/growthMailEnable has boasted significant
annual revenue growth since its incorporation in 2001.
Thousands of copies of MailEnable are downloaded daily from the
MailEnable web site. As Standard Edition is provided for free, and
does not require registration, there is no way to ascertain how many
people are using the product on their mail server. MailEnable is used by several large
hosting providers. There
are a number of hosting
partners (ISP's that offer MailEnable on their platform) and
resellers in over 30 countries around the world. The number of registered customers
using Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition product is growing
steadily as MailEnable moves into new market segments, including schools,
and corporates. For information on MailEnable in a
hosting environment please see: http://www.mailenable.com/hosting.asp For information on MailEnable in an
educational environment please see: http://www.mailenable.com/education.asp For information on MailEnable in a corporate environment, please see: http://www.mailenable.com/corporate.asp |
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