Re: [Exim] Exchange looming..

On Mon, 2002-08-26 at 23:29, Rob Lingelbach wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone here in exim-users can present to me a
> cogent argument against the potential implementation, which I
> face soon in my department, of Microsoft Exchange Server.

My sympathies as well... Unfortunately for you, my experience has been
that those who want to implement Exchange and Outlook rarely listen to
rational arguments why you shouldn't. Really, why they seem to want
Exchange and Outlook:

1) They want a shared calendaring system but are uninformed about the
alternatives.

2) It's from Microsoft.

3) Everyone else has it and it looks really cool.

If you really want to fight it, I would try these two tactics:

1) Look at the total cost of the Exchange/Outlook solution and if you
can compare it to the cost of a competing system.

Make sure that you include all the costs, and get very detailed. You
don't want to get half way through the implementation and find out that
you need something very expensive to complete the project.

2) Look at the security history of Exchange/Outlook.

Just go you your favorite virus software vendor's web site and make a
list of all of the viruses that use Outlook to propagate. And when they
say "Yes, but those are all viruses that we can catch with anti-virus
software" you just say "Yes, but what good did that software do me on
March 26th, 1999[1] or May 4th, 2000[2]?"

And in any case, don't try and engage the techs in a debate - your real
target has to be the real decision makers - managers and on up.

Jeff

[1] The day the Melissa virus was released.
[2] The day the Love Letter virus was released.