Internet Saerver Management - Essay Example

John Jones Dr Sullivan MIS 401 17th July Internet Server Management In the transitioning of Eilean Muile from Google’s Gmail service to Exchange Mail, both IT managers and users alike will encounter differences which might seem somewhat complicated on the surface. Yet the requirement is to transition to the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) system and the worries are there for the mail administrators. Will students and faculty find the new mail programme easy enough to use? Will existing mail be saved and also, how labour intensive is the management of mail servers versus “cloud computing”?

Gmail is an e-mail system using technology called web front end, so named because the mail client normally accesses his/her e-mail account utilizing the Internet. It is free for the individual user but several businesses also use the service and Gmail is the most popular web mail, with almost seventy-five million more clients than its nearest competitor, Hotmail. One of the biggest advantages of using web mail is the portability. Whether in Glasgow, Georgia or Guam one does not have to be connected to the office to send and receive mail.

Faculty and students of Eilean Muile who travel for research probably find Gmail convenient and easy. The biggest disadvantage is lack of security and is a distinct reason why most Governments specifically forbid web mail for official transmissions. If one wishes to use a stand-alone mail program such as Outlook, by itsown website (Google 2012), Google uses both IMAP and POP protocol, although it suggests that one choose IMAP, because of its stability and the fact that “Unlike POP, IMAP offers two-way communication between your web Gmail and your email client”.

On the other hand, mail distributed through a local server, also known as local client, is totally different. With that approach, mail is received, distributed and disseminated on a local server, usually specifically for that purpose. The most popular version is Microsoft Exchange, in partnership with MS Outlook installed on the client computers which is what UHI uses. The mail service is named after the year in which the version was introduced, as is usual for MS applications, and the current version is Exchange Server 2010, although the older versions are still in use worldwide.

It is almost used exclusively with Outlook, although Novell Evolution can also be utilized. The advantages include the increased security unavailable on Web clients. Mail can be scrutinized for denial of service attacks and Microsoft claims that Exchange 2010 is the most secure yet and offers automatic throttling to help prevent hackers and DOS. Another feature that businesses and governments alike find enticing is the secure mail feature that Web clients such as Gmail do not offer, using smart card technology.

The largest disadvantage of MS Exchange is its lack of mobility and many businesses are complementing Exchange Mail with a Web based feature and MS is experimenting with Cloud Computing.Prior to Exchange 2010 MS was using its own proprietary protocol, known as MAPI/RPC. However, the latest version utilizes RPC and according to Microsoft (Walther 2011), although MAPI is still be used and older Exchange programs can still access the mail, it essentially “moves Outlook MAPI mailbox connections from the back-end Mailbox servers and directory access from domain controllers/global catalogue servers in the data tier to the Client Access servers in the middle tier”.

In other words, redundancy is increased and client downtime is decreased during server failure and /or replacement of the servers.CONCLUSIONAlthough the unknown is always challenging, and there will be some initial grumbling from the clients, they will come to realize that MS Exchange local client is a more secure and suitable mail service for a university in the twenty-first century. Faculty especially will appreciate the ease in which they will be able to communicate with their students, for Web based mail is subject to availability of the Internet which is in turn culpable by weather and many other factors, whereas the LAN which the servers communicate through is normally more efficient.

So indeed Exchange Server based e-mail is the most appropriate for the school. ReferencesGoogle Gmail (2012). Get started with IMAP and POP3. Available at:https://support.google.com/mail/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1668960&page=ts.cs.Walther, H, Microsoft (2011). Uncovering the new RPC Client Access service included with Exchange 2010. Available at: http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/planning-architecture/uncovering-new-rpc-client-access-service-exchange-2010-part1.html.