lf a memory hog, requiring at least 8 MB. On our test network, Exchange ran like an overweight fullback with a guaranteed contract. Lotus cc:Mail 2.01 ran circles around it.
Both mail servers ran on 33-/66-MHz 486DX2s with 32 MB of RAM and gigabyte hard drives. Previous tests have shown that these machines are as close to two peas in a pod as any two servers can ever be. To connect with the rest of the network, both test systems had Artisoft NPro Ethernet cards set to run in NE2000 mode using the IPX protocol. On the same machines, Exchange edged out Lotus Notes in raw mail transaction speed, but Exchange has only a fraction of Notes' groupware functions.
Exchange's slow design does have one thing going for it. Unlike most network mail systems, including its predecessor Microsoft Mail, Exchange puts all its mail eggs in one basket. Almost all mail systems place the mailboxes in one database or directory set while farming out mail gateways and m
essage transfer agents (MTAs) to other systems. Exchange, in stark contrast, puts all mail services on a single machine. The slight increase in danger to the mail system is more than made up for by having a single, integrated, easy-to-manage server.
Exchange Server works and plays well with the rest of the NT Back Office Suite. But this is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that if you're already committed to NT, you can buy a complete, homogeneous network solution for all your office problems. The bad news is that you're tying your office to a single vendor.
Beyond Microsoft
Even though Exchange Server runs only on NT, it communicates well with other networks. Besides Microsoft's NetBEUI, Exchange speaks fluent TCP/IP, NetBIOS, IPX/SPX, and AppleTalk. Better still, Exchange Server comes ready to chat with SMTP and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME); Open Systems Interconnect's X.400/X.500 services; and, of course, mail programs compatible with Microso
ft's MAPI. It would have been better still if Exchange Server could talk politely to the other popular LAN mail transfer protocols--Lotus' Vendor Independent Mail (VIM) and Novell's MHS.
Exchange Server also works well at migrating data from preexisting networks and mail systems. For example, the program can take user information from the NetWare bindery or from NT's user register to create instant mail accounts. If you already have mail accounts on cc:Mail or Microsoft Mail, Exchange Server can switch hundreds of accounts from the old systems to Exchange in less time than it takes to read this review.
Groupware: Not!
If you ignore the idea that Exchange Server is groupware, it compares well with "mere" e-mail programs like Novell's GroupWise and Lotus' cc:Mail. And, unlike the still cranky Notes, it's much easier for developers and administrators. Of course, you can't do as much with Exchange Server as you can with Lotus Notes. For example, Notes users have more freedom to pic
k and choose exactly which files will be replicated from their home system or server to their laptop. Exchange users, on the other hand, are stuck with either choosing all folders or tediously selecting each file one by one. When you're on the road trying to get only your vital mail while paying a hotel's usurious phone rates, this can become a major annoyance.
Exchange could also stand improvement to its mail-filtering controls. Notes and cc:Mail make automatic mail management much easier with their more extensive and simple-to-use mail rule system.
Things don't get better if you're a developer. Notes' LotusScript isn't a world-beater for application design, but it produces better results than Exchange--with its reliance on Visual Basic--does. Notes' agent approach enables you to quickly build time-sensitive applications. For example, it's easy with Notes to construct a canned report relying on data from several different databases at the close of the business day and have it mailed to the top
brass. Exchange does let you take full advantage of OLE, but you'll spend a good deal of your coding time building basic work-flow functions that come shrink-wrapped with Notes.
Exchange does include one excellent, ready-to-run groupware application: Microsoft Schedule+. This has always been an outstanding network scheduling and calendar package. Unfortunately, Exchange doesn't add much that's new. For example, even though Exchange adds Internet mail as part of the base package, you can't synchronize appointments across the Internet the way you can with Campbell Services OnTime 3.0.
To the Net and Beyond
Despite Microsoft's all-out assault on the Internet, the company is still a johnny-come-lately to the Net, and Exchange shows this. While Exchange's Internet mail does well, with MIME and the ability to launch a Web browser by clicking on an embedded URL in a message, it still falls short of other programs.
For example, InterNotes enables Notes servers to be more than ju
st Web gateways; it lets them act as actual Web sites as well. Exchange's information, by comparison, remains locked within its own databases unless you feel up to some Visual Basic, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and OLE programming.
The bottom line is clear. If you want an advanced mail system, and you have the hardware to support it, Exchange Server deserves a look. Still, there's little that makes it stand out from cc:Mail and GroupWise. And if it's groupware or software for collaborative real-time work you want, Lotus Notes and Netscape Collabra are unquestionably better choices.
Product Information
Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0.................$1970
Microsoft Corp.
Redmond , WA
Phone: (800) 426-9400 or (206) 882-8080
Fax: (206) 936-7329
Internet:
http://www.microsoft.com
Circle 1079 on Inquiry Card.
Exchange: E-mail on Steroids
