email systems

Relieving overloaded email systems

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Sharing large documents, media files or data files is critical in the workplace and many CIOs rely on email systems because they are easy to use and familiar to most people. But as many IT executives know, making the email system the de facto content management system for communications has its drawbacks including bandwidth and storage constraints and increasing storage costs. Pepperdine University CIO Timothy Chester tells of his trials and tribulations dealing with this issue. At first, he instituted file size limits for the attachments passing through the university's email system but were unable to accommodate users' needs and folks turned to free email services from Microsoft, Yahoo and Google as well as social networks like Facebook and MySpace. That, in turn, created security problems for the IT department.

The solution? Turning to a secure file transfer solution that would be easy to use and cost-effective while at the same time providing relief for the over-burdened email system. In his case, it was Accellion, a product he says allowed students, faculty and staff at the university to use the email technology they already know yet still collaborate on sending large files quickly and easily without an exposure to security risks.

To read more about the Pepperdine IT experience:
- See this CIO Magazine article

For more stories from the FierceCIO network:
> Hard Drive Crusher is serious about security.
> Parallels adds Leopard Server support.
> First Atom devices coming in June.

Taking the middle ground with email

Mon, 07 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Today, it's entirely possible to take a hybrid approach to email messaging that allows you to choose the best from both the open standards community and your legacy proprietary systems technology. But this hybrid open/proprietary approach will only work if it allows users to drop in an email server without making changes to desktops or infrastructure. For a smooth transition and managed migration, the new system must operate seamlessly at the server-to-server level, so that during a period of coexistence, users of the new system can work effectively with users who are still hosted on Exchange. An effective approach uses a product compatible at the network-protocol level with the existing infrastructure. Outlook on the desktop will think it is talking to Exchange when it is really talking to the new Linux email server, and end users don't know they are on a different server. An open standard, Exchange-compatible, drop-in solution supports a Linux-friendly messaging environment that enables full Outlook functionality. What's more, enterprises can scale their email systems and choose the most economical storage components, and the servers can communicate on a peer-to-peer basis with Exchange and the rest of the email ecosystem. This middle-ground approach leverages systems that enable protocol compatibility with the market-dominating system but also allow the organization to evolve an open email ecosystem.

Read more about the hybrid email system:
- read the article at Linux Insider

SPOTLIGHT: State outsources all of its IT operations

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:01:34 -0500

Just the idea of outsourcing the entire IT operation for a state seems ludicrous at first glance, and very likely unbelievable even upon reflection. But that's exactly what Virginia has done in signing a $2 billion, 10-year contract this past summer with Northrop Grumman for updating and operating email systems, help desk services, and server operations. Article

Users prompting email changes

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:01:38 -0500

These days, more and more companies are debating dumping corporate email systems for free Web-based messaging solutions from players like Yahoo, Google and yes, even Microsoft. The reason? Users are actually pushing the trend as they are often frustrated with in-house email applications and also want instant messaging capabilities--which many enterprises still haven't brought in as a secure function. CIOs, if they haven't already, will have to contemplate the move to corporate versions from the messaging giants and some analysts predict the changeover will be a popular decision.

For more on the email dilemma facing tech leaders:
- read the news at Business 2.0