| |
|
|
| |
| Awards & Recognition |
| |
| Logix wins the PC Quest Best IT Implementation award for 2008 |
| |
| An innovative way of cutting down the Exchange licensing cost by providing an
Open Source alternative to the users who don't need Exchange Features. Fullerton was using MS-Exchange as their messaging platform for 12,000+ users. The organization was going in for a major expansion and was working to increase the number of users to 40,000. A messaging solution which was scalable and feature-rich was the need of the hour. Deploying exchange for 40,000 users was becoming a huge investment and, it was also found by the FIC team through an internal survey that 80% of the users were using limited features of Exchange. So the concept of a hybrid solution was conceived which would keep the user experience same by providing exchange features to only those who are going to use it while redirecting others to a simple open source mail server. |
|
|
|
| |
An innovative way of cutting down the Exchange licensing cost by providing an
Open Source alternative to the users who don't need Exchange Features. Fullerton was using MS-Exchange as their messaging platform for 12,000+ users. The organization was going in for a major expansion and was working to increase the number of users to 40,000. A messaging solution which was scalable and feature-rich was the need of the hour. Deploying exchange for 40,000 users was becoming a huge investment and, it was also found by the FIC team through an internal survey that 80% of the users were using limited features of Exchange. So the concept of a hybrid solution was conceived which would keep the user experience same by providing exchange features to only those who are going to use it while redirecting others to a simple open source mail server.
The challenges that the team anticipated in building an effective heterogeneous messaging platform were: Unchanged user experience seamlessly integrated between exchange and Q-mail and scalable with minimal latency.
In order to cater to this requirement, Fullerton invited all major messaging solution vendors. During the POC phase, they found that Logix solution (Linux Based Mail Server) was the best for their requirements. |
| |
| The Implementation |
| |
The setup had essentially been designed by tweaking the MTA settings of both mail servers. The Linux MTA was tweaked to look up to the Active Directory and handle mail deliveries accordingly. Similarly, Exchange was also configured to deliver mails for users to be relayed to Linux Mail server.
The major components which were deployed in this project were Windows 2003 and Red Hat Enterprise 5 as Operating systems, Windows Active directory as authentication mechanism and MS-Exchange and Q-mail for mailing. For centralized authentication with Windows Active Directory via Qmail application they extended Windows AD schemas for maintaining additional attributes.
For mass migration of live users from MS-Exchange to Q-mail with their existing mail boxes, Logix designed user migration scripts that used the IMAP protocol. Within two days FIC and Logix team have migrated 9,000+ users on the Q-mail system without any down time on working system using help of Windows AD Logon script facility. All migrated users client configuration got changed on the next working day at first logon.
Using simple Web based management console FIC team was able to manage individual user customized restrictions. For centralized address book they also modified Global address list query for Exchange users and for Linux users they provided LDAP address book.
To maintain e-mail security process outside the network they deployed the Spam filter at Logix's datacenter and not at FIC premises.
For the disaster recovery plan, Logix deployed backup servers in a HA cluster environment with scheduled backup activities. For redundant availability of user’s data for both cluster servers Fullerton provided backend SAN storage.
The setup had been essentially designed by tweaking the MTA of the mail servers. The Linux MTA was tweaked to look up to the Active Directory and handle mail deliveries accordingly. Similarly Exchange was also configured to deliver mails for user to be relayed to Linux Mail server. |
| |
| The Impact |
| |
| After deploying this project, the company is able to save huge costs in terms of licensing that too without losing upon features. |
| |
| In conversation with... |
| |
| 1. What challenges were faced while implementing this project? |
| |
| Firstly, there was no readymade solution available in regards to what has been deployed at Fullerton India. So the main issue was to understand their requirement and get it implemented. Secondly, mailbox migration was a big challenge. They already had 9,000 users on Exchange, which they wanted to shift. For the same, we had to create scripts so that the users could be migrated in one day. |
| |
| 2. What were the main benefits gained out of the deployment? |
| |
| The main benefit for Fullerton was the license cost, which they saved on the Exchange front. Also, the end users did not have the feeling that they were migrated to a system, which did not give them full functionality. |
| |
| 3. What else is being planned for this project in future? |
| |
| The amount of users will be reaching 40,000 in three year's time. Thus presently, the entire focus is on how the server will manage the load. The focus is entirely on the mail delivery mode, which should not slow down and in return create problem for the users. |
| |
|
|
 |
| |
Adwait Gadre
Director,
Logix Infosecurity Pvt. Ltd. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
