[Info-iMS] New WebMail Client

[Roger Hockenberry]

I rarely post to this list as I've left Sun and now focus on other  
'things,' but I did want to respond to this thread as I think we have  
an 'apples and oranges' comparison starting.

First, let's all agree that Exchange is not about email. It is about  
calendaring- email is a by-product of what exchange is intended to do  
which is to allow users to schedule meetings with people easily and  
send some small messages back and forth, standards be darned (and be  
careful, Sharepoint is getting popular, which is an extension of this  
idea) and remember, even HotMail doesn't run on Exchange

Let's also agree that Sun's email is just that- a standards-based  
email platform meant to support millions of users and send tens of  
millions of messages easily and quickly.

What we have is a comparison of two distinct strategies- one aimed at  
group collaboration (meant as a competitor to groupwise and lotus  
notes originally) and one that is aimed at being the best-in-class  
ISP-grade mail server (which it is).

So, for large scale email systems, Sun is it- small footprint, great  
throughput, scale, performance, etc, etc- nothing can really beat it.  
For small companies there are number of choices (postfix, sendmail,  
exchange, etc) that one could make based on cost, competency of your  
IT staff, support,  and features, etc.

In the end what matters is what you're attempting to do- serve email,  
or ease collaboration (calendaring). I'm not saying the two are  
mutually exclusive, but what it typically boils down to is user  
experience on both sides- end user and admin and Sun isn't focused on  
end user experience (and one could also argue there is a lack of  
focus on the admin side as well).

In order to make a compelling argument to not move to Exchange,  Sun  
is going to have do a number of things that cuts against their  
typical technical focus/bias- compete at collaboration from what an  
end user WANTS (not what is 'technically proper' let's say) and  
concentrate on usability, ease of install, and basic service  
(building better community relations, being responsive, etc) not to  
mention listening to users rather than dictating solutions, and they  
haven't been able to do that lately.

Jeff, why don't you just add a small email window to Calendar, re- 
name it 'Sun Collaboration Suite' and use that as the competitor to  
Exchange? That way you still have the ISP grade email platform, and a  
viable platform to actually meet user needs.....


/Roger

_______________________________

Roger Hockenberry | Managing Partner, Vice President | Gartner | 4501  
N Fairfax Drive | Arlington, VA 22203 | Office: 703.387.5783 | Cell:  
202.253.8805 | E-Mail: roger.hockenberry@gartner.com