PostPath Server Benefits Summary
Microsoft Exchange™ is expensive in itself, and even more expensive is the range of things that (due to Exchange's inherent weaknesses) have to be gathered around Exchange to produce an adequate outcome.
Here are some of the ways the PostPath Server helps customers "Stop the Bleeding" and get them on the path to a reliable, effective, money-saving infrastructure that is open to standards-based solutions and the latest collaboration innovations.
- Consolidate servers, saving on server hardware, server maintenance, OS licenses, and OS maintenance
- Server hardware - doesn't need to be over-powered
- Storage: Use low cost commodity (DAS, NAS, or SAN) storage. With PostPath you don't need overpowered top-end SANs to run your mail system
- Redundancy and/or clustering in the storage - commodity (or even open source) storage does the clustering for you
- Enabling replication through Linux filing systems or low cost file-based storage
- Use low-cost high volume semi-offline storage for rarely accessed files (all done at file-system level)
- Virus filtering - use low-cost standards-based "Gateway-style" virus filters; re-use existing Virus gateways and/or Virus service; avoid poor performance expensive Exchange-specific solutions
- No Jet Database:
- Never becomes "corrupted"
- Never requires database compaction; extra space for compaction not required
- Defrag much less common; can take place as background task with only mild performance impact
- Backups, Tools, Methodology, and Infrastructure:
- File-based backup, many excellent low-cost tools, vs. JET backup (worse tools for a lot more money) with Exchange
- Give people PostPath-based storage, reduce/eliminate PST files Since PostPath-backup is incremental (unlike PST file backup), this can actually substantially reduce size of daily backup and give users a better service
- Backups can be performed live and incrementally. Restores can be done on the individual message level, not the entire DB, and can restore directly from backed-up files to live running server
- Does not require administrators "tending" to keep it running; administrators freed for more productive tasks
- Large attachments in separate "single instance files", to save space on storage
- Archiving - use standards based archiving systems. Avoid interfering with client (vs. Outlook Journaling)
- Combine open-systems with Microsoft systems on a case-by-case basis - when you're doing new things with your infrastructure, whether it's adding IM, adding conferencing, or adding MAC desktop support, or whatever else, you have choices and you can take price into account
- Compatibility removes worries about co-existence expense when PostPath is used alongside existing (Microsoft) systems