I know there are a number of people out there still using Outlook Express. If you have been sending and receiving email for years, and have never filed messages into sub-folders, keeping all your email in the Inbox–you may soon run afoul of the maximum size limit for a single folder in Outlook Express: 2 GB.

Maybe you, dear reader, do not use Outlook Express, but you know someone who does–pass this helpful message along: “it’s time to archive that old email!”

For more information on this topic and how to recover from database corruption caused by exceeding the size limit in Outlook Express, see this excellent and informative article at Microsoft.

One of our clients introduced me to DimDim, a free open source software package for hosting web conferences. It used to be Windows-only, but it looks as though Mac users can now join in the fun (though some features are still lacking for Mac users). What’s more, you no longer even have to install the software in order to host your own free web meetings. DimDim offers a hosted service for up to 20 participants. If you need additional features or more participants, they have upgraded service plans for minimal cost.

We are frequently asked what collaboration platform will best meet the needs of a small organization. Google Apps is an increasingly popular choice because it has such low infrastructure requirements, and the feature set is very attractive. Small nonprofits and educational organizations receive for free some features that businesses usually have to pay for. But the basic functionality is available for free even to for-profit entities.

Microsoft Exchange is also popular because of the rich functionality it offers, and because so many are familiar with the features of Outlook in an Exchange environment. For instance, shared calendars and contact folders, etc. easy integration with mobile devices, and seamless synchronization of data on the Web, in Outlook.

After examining the features, I can say that Google Apps and Microsoft Exchange are very similar in the features they offer. Exchange does offer some features that simply cannot be replicated in Google Apps. On the other hand, I don’t think Google Apps offers anything you don’t get with Exchange (except a lower price tag).

So when choosing a communication and collaboration platform for your organization, it comes down to those few things which Google Apps does not do at all, or doesn’t do as well as Exchange.

To summarize the differences:
Microsoft Exchange permits fine grained delegation of access to other users for email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes. Google Apps only permits sharing of calendar information (unless you give others your password, which grants them full access to your account). If you use Google Apps but prefer Outlook for email, calendar, contacts, etc you must still log in to the web to access another users’ shared calendar.

Microsoft Exchange supports the concept of shared folders. You can create folders for email, calendars, shared contact folders, plus notes and tasks. Google Apps permits shared calendars and that’s it.

Microsoft Exchange has better support for mobile devices than does Google Apps. The main issue is that if you send an item from Google Apps, it is not available on your handheld (depending on your platform), and vice versa. Items deleted from Google Apps must independently be deleted on the handheld. Items read on the handheld still show as unread in Google Apps and vice versa. Exchange supports remote wipe of handheld devices (Blackberry and Windows Mobile) while Google Apps does not. Also using multiple synchronization tools with Google Apps can result in duplication of items (syncing Google Calendar with both Outlook and a Blackberry, for instance).

Microsoft Exchange syncs contacts between Outlook and the Web. Google Apps does not, although you can work around this by synchronizing with a handheld device attached to a computer by a cable. It’s also worth mentioning that for organizations without a well developed customer database, the Contacts functionality in Outlook is far superior to the Google Apps address book.

My judgement is that Google Apps is a fine solution for organizations on a tight budget, which have a limited need to delegate access to information, who already have a good way to share contact records throughout the organization, and can put up with the limited support for mobile devices.

This analysis does not compare the costs of Google Apps with Microsoft Exchange. The Standard and Education editions of Google Apps are free, with the Premier edition carrying a flat per-user per-year fee. Microsoft Exchange can either be rented month to month from a hosting company or set up on your own hardware, which carries its own risks and costs. Conventional wisdom is that it is cheaper to rent Exchange access unless the organization has over 20 staff, at which point the costs become very similar. Although nonprofit organizations may be an exception since they can obtain Microsoft software at such low cost via TechSoup.org.

Microsoft Exchange and Google Apps Compared

I produced the following chart to accompany TechSoup’s Backup webinar today.

Here is the Word document, it’s a little nicer for printing.

I haven’t evaluated or even used all of these packages. Mostly we use Symantec Backup Exec and EMC Insignia’s Retrospect. I’d be interested to try the backup options from Acronis and/or Paragon, because they started out as disk imaging utilities and have evolved into tools that can be used for backup. The nice thing about that is they have the potential to restore a complete system, with operating system and installed software intact.

Desktop Backup Software For Small Organizations

Server/Network Backup Software For Small Organizations

¹With addition of Apple Time Capsule hardware, $300.

²With optional Bare Metal Restore add-on, $709.

³Purchase of additional licenses for client desktops may be required.

⁴Desktop data can be protected by redirecting folders to a server.

>My question is if all 50 users need to access all 3 servers, do I need
to buy 3 copies of windows 2003 server and 50 CALs per server, so I need
150 CALs or can I buy 50 CALs for my 50 users?

The answer depends on whether Windows Server 2003 is licensed “per
user/device” or “per server”. For both licensing modes, you may choose
to license either users or devices.

If you choose Per User/Device licensing, then you need one Windows
Server 2003 CAL for every user OR device.

If you choose Per Server licensing, then for each of your three
servers, you need a number of Windows Server 2003 CALs equal to the
maximum number of concurrent authenticated sessions that server will
host.

I think this overview is pretty clear:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/caloverview.mspx

HTH,

Zac Mutrux

Here are a few ideas:
1) Have people leave the data in a voicemail box. Then pay someone to transcribe the messages. The person who does the transcription need not be local if they have access to the Internet, so you can cast a wide net and find an inexpensive resource.

2) Email appliance that dials up via an analog phone line. There are a few of these devices out there. Small, solid-state device with no moving parts to break, and no software to learn. I don’t think Earthlink/Cidco makes the mailstation any more, but you might be able to use a used one with any old ISP. http://iowacomputing.stores.yahoo.net/cidmiv200mai.html

If the people sending you info are local and your organization has some kind of IT infrastructure, you wouldn’t even need Internet access for them. You could have them dial in to a modem attached to your network, and either send mail directly to your mail server, or piggyback on your internet connection.

HTH,

Zac

Yes, I’ve used hosted Exchange services and they work well. Just one thing–if you have network problems and don’t know it, you’ll find out after switching to hosted Exchange. For example, one client had spotty service until they increased their DSL speed and eliminated the use of a flaky wireless network.

I think this is a particularly good solution for organizations that are too small for a Windows domain–that is, fewer than ten computers.

Running Exchange isn’t the expensive part. It’s taking care of it when things go wrong. You really need software that will do block-level restores, so you can restore just a single mailbox. Otherwise you need to always keep space free on your server equal to the size of your information store, so you can restore the entire thing from backup. You need a decent UPS and the thing has to be properly configured to trigger a graceful shutdown upon power loss. Etc, etc.

HTH,

Zac