IT managers face the daunting task of managing - risks, costs and complexity of the IT infrastructure in their enterprise. Our own experience and that of our customers suggests that Risk, Complexity and Costs are interrelated. Risks come largely from technology obsolescence and complexity of the solution (as seen by the end user). Fortunately, there is a way out.

Much of the collaboration is possible through use of the most basic and simple collaboration tools like email, chat etc. Simple tools are easy to learn, easy to manage, easy to maintain and as a result cost a lot less (and therefore have a better chance of resulting in a higher ROI).

Our suggestion to our customers therefore is to look for simplicity, lower cost and openness while deciding on a collaboration solution for their enterprise. Solutions such as Mithi Connect Server, which are based on an open architecture, cost less and are simple to install, upgrade, maintain, manage and use, fit well with these criteria.

The openness and flexibility of the Mithi Connect Server creates greater flexibility in the IT architecture, allowing incremental and need based upgradation of the collaboration infrastructure, while offering other benefits such as integration with the latest access devices, directory systems or enterprise applications.

MS Exchange & Lotus Notes are feature rich applications. However, it is observed that only a fraction of all the features are used by majority of the people, and only a handful find the need for high-end/specialised features. To avoid paying the heavy licensing cost for features that are not used, organizations such as AFL, Indofil Chemicals, Biostadt and DTDC have either chosen to replace Lotus Notes or implement a hybrid solution wherein Lotus Notes and Mithi Connect Server co-exist. The domain and address books are shared across the two servers and the mail routing is seamless and automatic.

This solution is suitable if your requirement matches one or more of the following:

• You already are using a proprietary email solution like MS Exchange or Lotus Notes, and would like to add more email users on an alternative resource efficient platform.
• You would like to provide the high end collaboration features of these solutions to a smaller subset of the user base while the majority of the users can be brought onto a lower cost email platform.
• You would like to introduce a more open, flexible and adaptable email solution in your environment.

This server will be the MX server for the domain and receive mail from the Internet. This server will also be configured to deliver outgoing mail. The server will be configured to scan all incoming mail for Spam and virus using Spam Assassin, Clam AV, RBL, sender / recipient check etc.

The mail server will host the mailboxes for all the users on the domain. The end users will access their mailboxes using POP/IMAP/HTTP protocols. The address books will be accessed via the LDAP protocol and the web client-using http. In addition to the advantages of having an Internet mail server, having a separate relay server offers the following advantages:

• Any attack on the server from the Internet, in terms of a DOS/DDOS attack or a Spam/ virus attack will not affect the end user response.
• Also having two servers ensures that each can act as a standby to the other giving higher availability.

Incoming mail

• The mail for the domain will arrive at the relay server where they will be scanned.
• Valid mail will be delivered to the mail server where they are delivered to the users mailbox.
• End users access their mail boxes on the mail server.

Outgoing mail

• The users will configure their desktops to use the SMTP service on the mail server.
• Mail for other users on the domain will be delivered locally and mail for external domains will be directed to the relay server.
• The relay server will scan the mail and deliver valid mail to the Internet.

Both the MCS servers will be setup in an enterprise mode. In an enterprise mode, one of the servers is designated as the master and the remaining servers are configured as slaves to the master. User addition / deletion is done from the master. Setting the servers in an enterprise mode ensures that any changes made on any server are synchronized to all the other servers automatically. Some examples of auto data synchronization are as follows:

• User addition/deletion on master is synchronized to all the servers.
• A change in the directory information of a user, such as change in name address or telephone number, done on one server is synchronized to all the other servers automatically.
• Change in mailing information such as forwarding etc to synchronized to all the servers automatically.

Synchronization with the disaster recovery server.
In case of a DR server, the user configurations, server configurations as well as the mail store is automatically synchronized with the mail server at predefined intervals.

Mithi Connect Server will be setup to co-exist with the existing mail servers Exchange 5.5 / Exchange 2000+ / Lotus Domino 5.5+. Co-existence allows users on the same domain to be distributed across the Exchange 5.5 / Exchange 2000+ / Lotus Domino 5.5+ and MCS servers. The directory synchronization and mail flow between the servers is automated.

A separate Mithi Connect Server would be configured as a Disaster Recovery Server in a hot standby mode for the Mail Server.Data would be synchronized between the two servers. In case of any downtime to the Mail Server, users would access the DR Server. This would ensure minimum downtime.

Clients can access their mailboxes using a desktop email client such as Outlook Express/Outlook, Thunderbird etc. The protocol used to access mail can be POP or IMAP. Alternatively, users can access their mailboxes on the server using the web mail client