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Tomorrods messagingsystemswont
CIlVC
just deliverthe mail;theyll support
corporateinformationstructures
ByStephanie
Stahl

END ME AN E-MArr.It'sa phrasethat


pcr'nreates the workplace.And the prac-
ticc is increasingdaily.The numberof
u.orkcrsin Fortune2,ooocompanies
tusinqclcctronic-mail technologyis likely
to approachr;irillion this year,up from L*.r than
9 million ll'orkcrs thrcc vcarsago, accordingto the t
Electronic Messaging.\ssociationin Arlington, Va. ,t
Indeed, the importancc of lt-mail as the medium for ,'FI
"4"rF
businesscommunicationscan'tbe overstated.
i at E-mail systems grow more pervasive, the technology is moving beyond
i simple person-to-personexchanges.E-mail itself is becoming the backbone
g for new groupware and workflow applications that help executives, man-
* agers, and other workers share vital business applications and tasks. "The
3 goal is to build a reliable information backbone that you can layer other

4 8 . t N r o n u A T r o N w E E K. A U G U S T2 9 . 7 9 9 4
HPToProuide being akin to a private Internet,
Wellfleet
Seruice rr-ith a backboneof information
W e l l f l e eCto m m u n i - servers that will allow employ-
c a t t o nI sn c a. nd ees to share information and
H e w l e n - P a c kC a rod. collaborate on proposals and
h a v ea g r e etdh a tH P reports through PC clients.
'Applications
w i l lo r o v i dien s t a l l a t i o n . built on mes-
e aI n t e n a n c e , saging platforms will support
0 n - s r lm
software updates, and essential processes-not just
othersupport services individuals," says Forrester's
forWellfleet's inter- Dix. Companies like Peat Mar-
networking products. wick need a scalable system
H Pa l s ow i l lr e s e l l that allows technology man-
WellfleeB t sa c k b o n e agers to add users easily.
N o d ea n dA c c e s sN o d e Today's file-sharing E-mail
routerbridges. systems impose too many
administrative headaches be-
cause the client PC triggers
Phoenix Rises transactions and runs all the
WithAtlantis logic of an E-mail application.
The server functions merely as
Phoenix Newspapers a post office box where mes-
I n c .w, h i c hm a n a g e s sagessit in a shared file until
two dailynewspapers users pick them up.
anda weeklybusiness In such systems,the amount
of traffic between a client and Mail call: Microsoft's WarrenanticipatesbetterE-mailsecurity.
the file server is 'Very intense,"
says HP's Jeffery. Every time a user looks up launched a professional services business to
an address,sends a note, or retrieves a mes- help organizations build and integrate their
sage,traffic is driven across the network. HP messagingsystems.
already markets a client-server messaging The typical E-mail post ofFrce supports
architecture for Unix environments with its about 100 users. The more users a company
OpenMail product. adds, the greater the probability of slow
"There's a lot of chatter on the network," response times. Many companies solve that
adds Ed Owens,director of technical relations problem by adding post offices-a potential
at Lotus Development Corp. in Cambridge, nightmare for the network administrator.
Mass.Lotus is building a messagingplatform That should change with client-server mes-
called Communications Server. saging systems,in which thousands of users
Lotus, Microsoft, and Novell (with its Open are connected to a single server-and servers
Messaging Environment) are building tech- are connected to each other to form a mes-
nologieswhere E-mail and related systemsare saging backbone. "The server," says HP's Jef-
journalinArizona, will completely server-based."The server does all fery, "is not just for accessingdata. It's like a
replace itsHoney- the churning," says Owens. "lt sends a burst living, breathing entity that does things on
well/Bull mainframe back to the client in one fell swoop."If a serv- your behalf."
systemwithAtlantis er-instead of a client-picks up users'
(Access ToLocalArea requests, checks directories, grabs data, and FasterDeliuery
NetworkTotalInfor- packagesthem, corporate network traffic will No longer will users have to retrieve their
mationSystem), to be be reduced. own E-mail. The server will act more like a
developed by Houston The single-thread- postal employeethat deliversmail directly to a
systems integrator BSG ed nature of current E-Mail$ites PC doorstep.It will route and automatically
C o n s u l t i nTgh.ea r c h i - Tollouble
file-based E-mail sys- forward information to users.And becausethe
tecturewillfocuson tems means only one 200 server handles messagetransfers, the new
SunSoarcCenter 2000 person at a time can generation of messagingsystemswill be more
o
servers; Sun,Intel,and accessa shared file. .; 1s0 secure,saysTodd Warren, group product man-
Macintosh clients; and "From a scalability ager at Microsoft.
theSybase relational point of view, it's €c r00 But that's not enough for some users. "We
database management inherently limited," need a central doorway to get to all com-
SVSIEM. says Mike Demshki,
3so pany data," observesDarin Stoddard,IS man-
marketing manager '91 ager at Flow International Corp., a Kent,
'93
for enterprise mes- Wash., manufacturer of material separation
saging at Sequent 1993surveyof743lSmanagers and access equipment. Flow is considering
Computer Systems in medium- to large-sized
c0 m p na r e s
becoming a Microsoft ExchangeServer site to
in Beaverton, Ore. help more employees work with information
DATA:€LECTR0NIC M€SSAGING
ASSN.
Sequent recently contained in the company's databases and

5 4 . t N r o n u A T r o N w E E K . A U G U S T2 9 . l s 9 4
llewSoftware
Finetuning:Colgate-Palmolive's
Arcure
Distribution looksfonryard
to betteradministration
tools.
$cheme
Software AG,the user-specified rules that permit work-
Reston, Va..maker ers or technology administrators to
ofclient-server instruct where and how messagesare
applications routed-even when their systems
developmenttools, has aren't running. A rule, for example,
announced theUnix could be: "While I'm on vacation, for-
ProductivityPack,a CD- ward my E-mail to my secretary."
ROMthatdistributes its A rules engine for messaging sys-
ADABase relational tems sounds good to Robert Stratton,
database management technology advisor at GulfCanada Re-
system, Natural fourth- sources Ltd. in Calgary, Alberta. Strat-
generation language, ton has a rules database in his cc:Mail
andothermiddleware, E-mail system, but it operates only on
applicationsgeneration, his local machine. That means his PC
"
anddatadictionary i must be running for any rules to be
products.A second CD- EefFective.
R0Mcontains i Of course, emerging client-server
documentation forthe ! messaging technologies aren't a
software. Published panacea. One problem will be cost. E-
pricesfortheproduct quality-assurance systems. mail file servers are typically inexpensive 486-
initiallytargeted
for "Users can access these things from the based Intel PCs.Future servers will be based
HP/UX systems, range network today, but it is a pain to get in and on more powerful operating systems, such as
fromS0,000 to out," Stoddard adds. "We are looking for a Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT, that require
$120,000. framework to bring it all together. We want a more expensive servers.
way to link applications." Lotus and Novell plan to support several
Client-server E-mail should help some com- operating systems on their future messaging
LotusBacks panies better manage their messaging sys- platforms, including NetWare, OS/2,Unix vari-
tems. Colgate-PalmoliveCo., with 9,000 E-mail ants, and NT. HP supports only Unix platforms
0penDoc users,has 15 electronic post offices in its New and has no plans to port the technology to
Lotus
Development York headquarters alone.Jim Arcure, manager other operating systems. In the case of
joined
Corp. Componentof systems integration, wants improved E-mail Microsoft, it's NT only. So users interested in
Integration
LabsInc.,a administration tools. "With file-based struc- the Exchange Server will have to commit to
consortium 's
ofvendors tures, the post office must be taken down to Microsoft year-old operating system.
backingOpenDoc,
an tune the system," he says."With client-seryer, Users also will have to decide when to
object
technology that won't be necessary." migrate to client-server messaging architec-
standardseffort. tures. To facilitate smooth migrations be-
OpenDoc to Preuenting
isexpected Downtime tween old and new E-mail platforms, all ven-
comDete withMicrosoft Indeed, the new crop of messaging servers dors say they will support both file sharing
0LE(oblect
Corp.'s will have tools that help prevent downtime. If and client-server systems.
linking
andembedding) one link is down, the system will automati- But there's an even
standard.
ClLabsoffers cally route a messageor application to its des- greater drawback. Mi-
several0penDoc tination. Microsoft's Warren says these sys- LAII-Based crosoft's Exchange
developerkits. tems will automatically choose the least-
expensivemessagingroute.
E-MailUsage Server, Lotus's Com-
munications Server,
Nocurrent
Server-basedE-mail also should help net- and Novell's Open
work administrators anticipate problems. Messaging Environ-
Moreover, "You have the ability to centralize ment are only in the
management," says HP's Jeffery. "You could initial stages of user
have hundreds of users on multiple servers testing and aren't
and manage the entire thing from a single expected to roll out
desktop." In today's file server environment, until next year.
adding or deleting a user from a mail system If you want mes-
requires an on-site administrator. sage-system vendors
Currently, users are tied to existing post to speed development
offices. "If I go to another location, that server of client-server-based
might not be available to me," says Eldon products, better send
Greenwood, director of electronic messaging A 1994surveyof lS managers them an E-mail. On
at Novell's WordPerfect division. The new tech- at 50Forture1,000companiss second thought, it
askedif they'vecommittedto
nology will allow users to log on anywhere. a LAN-based package
E-mail might be more effec-
Client-server architectures also will allow tive if vou make a
E-mail systems to be controlled by external, phone call. T

56 ' INFORMATIONWEEK .AUGUST 29,1,994

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