Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Securing Exchange to Mirapoint Jeff McKinney University of Maryland Dept of Electrical & Computer Eng.
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, at UMD Central IT 50,000+ users All students & many faculty/staff users Individual departments/colleges ISR, ECE – hundreds of users Many others Historically many systems Moving toward single central system
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 ECE/ISR Environment – Previous Infrastructure Exchange 2000 Server Active Directory on Server 2000 Outlook XP/2000 Users users Most underutilizing Exchange features Basic calendaring Many large mailboxes – problem for central IT Limited local IT Resources 3 FTEs including me Many responsibilities beyond
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 General Issues Unstable environment Weekly problems - misconfigurations Difficult & time consuming to troubleshoot Impacting and calendaring University environment – client choice Physical hardware old Running out of storage Cost of Exchange
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Security Issues Patch Tuesday testing requirements Delay patching while testing Significant changes each month Many security related configurations General purpose OS & feature heavy Exchange being rejected due to RBL listing Cumbersome Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus Integration / Administration issues Hacking Issues Worms, trojans, etc. Rebuild or restore on multiple occasions Time consuming and disruptive to users
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Options Invest further in Exchange Upgrade hardware Add storage Upgrade software Improve test environment Improve configuration & audit regularly Alternative solutions Simplify IT & reduce costs Most users don’t need all Exchange functionality Need primarily only basic calendar & Must work with Outlook Need improved Anti-spam & Anti-virus
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Mirapoint Experience with other campus units Rich user experience & branding Secure & Simple Default configuration secure Very little to configure (or misconfigure) Options are available but few changes required Checkboxes to force SSL No shell access, only mail services running Smoothly integrated & powerful anti-spam & anti-virus Reliable Relatively few critical patches
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Simple Configuration Example
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Migration November 2004 Used Mirapoint ProServ for migration Flash cut after test migrations Full reconciliation post-migration No data lost
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Outlook & Client Support Implemented standards-based approach (IMAP, POP, XML) No related issues & minor client config issues re: calendar Retained group calendar functionality Mirapoint proven as viable alternative to MS Exchange for enterprise-class users
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Results Pre-Mirapoint Server related issues weekly Critical patches monthly, complex testing IT support 30%+ of an FTE Post Mirapoint – Nov 2004 – Nov 2005 No server related issues – it just works Critical patches quarterly/semi-annually Simple patch testing – appliance IT support < 5% of an FTE Calendaring is improving Next Steps Coordinate with central IT Move to main campus Mirapoint setup?
Jeff McKinney Exchange to Mirapoint Migration January 11, 2006 Questions??
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