Re: Email on the Iseries or not

[<wdjohnston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

Very interesting thread.

I run Stalker in i5-OS.  We replaced Exchange with it and have very few issues 
that require a ton of support. I get most of my support from the Stalker list 
server.  We support 4 domains and about 500 users.  The server itself does not 
use up much CPU.  2-5% on a 520.  We used to run the same server on a 170-2292 
with the same utilization.  We average around 2000 emails per day.

Our clients use Outlook, as they did before, or the Webmail client that was 
included with the product.  We did buy third party 'skins' to dress up the web 
interface a little.

We are also running McAfee Antivirus.  This is probably the most expensive part 
of the deal.  I'm working on ClamAV and other GNU malware options, but I'm 
learning as I go, so the curve is winning right now.  Just recently websites 
have appeared that post versions compiled for the PASE environment with pretty 
good instructions on installation.  I have had good success with using these 
utilities

On the negative side, Stalker doesn't update the i5 native code as often as the 
other platforms.  This makes sense in that there are very few users of this 
platform.  I had an issue once due to an error in the code and was able to have 
it repaired by Stalker in a day or two.

I'm not overly concerned about having my production processor on the internet 
because I have it isolated with a firewall and only open those ports that are 
required for email.  We also use black lists to reduce the amount of spam we 
see.  I think we reduced our daily mail count by about 1500 when I enabled the 
blacklist feature.

Having had to deal with Exchange, and having used Domino, I will say that I 
like CommuniGate Pro.  As to whether or not to run it on the i5, I also like it 
there because I know this system and it's capabilities.  We are a small shop 
with 3.5 FTEs.  I am the only i5 resource and am part time so I don't have 
enormous amounts of time to spend on email problems.  

CGP also has some other features that we don't use.  List server, SIP, 
Clustering, etc.  If you are looking for a serious communications package this 
one is worth a look, no matter what platform you wish to run it on.

My $.02.
Wayne Johnston
Ripon Medical Center