The document summarizes the benefits of leveraging open standards for electronic communication over proprietary systems. It discusses how open standards allow universities to choose best of breed components from both open source and commercial vendors. This provides more flexibility, easier integration between components, lower costs, faster innovation, and greater security than being locked into a single vendor's proprietary solutions. The document then provides details on the university's current email system and considerations for transitioning components to open standard solutions like the Horde/IMP webmail system used by many other universities.

1. Leveraging Open
Standards for Electronic
Communication
September 14, 2005

2. Introduction
• Dave Shafer
– Unix Systems Group,
ITS Systems and Platform
Administration

3. Gartner Analysis
Legacy Assumptions Modern Characteristics
E-Mail Access Server-based: mail
accessed via Unix shell
account (for example, pine
or elm
PC-based: POP, IMAP,
Web browser
Mailbox Size Small (typically under
10MB), delete after
reading
Large (users expect
100MB or more, thanks to
free e-mail services such
as Yahoo and Google),
long-term persistent
storage on the server
Message Size Small, almost always pure
text
Can be large, and multi-
megabyte attachments are
common
Spam Volume Low, can be handled by an
individual
High, affects system
performance and user
productivity
Directory Used only for Unix-based
services
Used by a diverse array of
services on multiple
operating-system
platforms
Cain, M. W., & Leong, L. August 15, 2005. Universities Face
Challenges in Modernizing E-mail Systems. Gartner, Inc.

4. E-mail System
Components
Incoming e-mail Outgoing e-mail
Anti-Spam/
Antivirus
Mail storage
POP/IMAP server
Directory
services
List management
Web interface

5. Gartner
Recommendation
• “For many universities, the best
solution will be to gradually
replace components”
• “If performance is still inadequate,
migrate to a commercial,
standards-based solution
designed for ISP environments.”

6. Current Service
• Mix of open source and
commercial components
• AIX and Linux servers
• Web client based on Horde/IMP
– Supports all major browsers
• Other POP/IMAP clients
– Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.
• Highly available: last unplanned
outage was in 1/2004; less than
5% of users impacted

7. Current Service
(continued)
• Webmail
– 28,000 active users
– 60,000 logins/day avg.
• Other POP, IMAP clients
– 2,900 active users
• Data confirm that most students
use web-based e-mail

8. Benefits of Open
Standards
• Freedom to choose best of
breed components
– Not restricted to one vendor
– Not restricted to either open
source or commercial
– Selection criteria may vary for
each component

9. Benefits (continued)
• Ease of integration
– Abundant configuration options driven by
diverse, real-world requirements
– Integration between different vendors is a
necessity; plan for it at the beginning
– Use of open standards allows better
integration
• More secure
– Far less vulnerable to virus/network attacks
(server, client, and web browser)
– Majority of time spent on security today
involves proprietary systems

10. Benefits (continued)
• Faster response to new
standards, changing
requirements
– Development is driven by real-
world scenarios in
heterogeneous environments
– A vendor will only implement a
new feature if it’s consistent
with their corporate strategy

11. Benefits (continued)
• Access to the source code allows minor
changes and improvements without
major investment
– Added support for local quota system
– Added support for alias addresses
– Added support for MS Outlook export/import
formats
– Added support for University White Pages
directory
• Similar enhancements to vendor-
provided software may be impossible or
very costly

12. Costs
• Two sources of system costs:
– External Costs
• Hardware, software licensing,
software support contracts, etc.
– Internal Costs
• Staff time, lost productivity,
opportunity cost, etc.

13. Costs (continued)
• Open Source decreases total costs
– Significantly reduces external costs
(licensing, support contracts, etc.)
– Internal costs (staff time) comparable to
commercial software
Commercial Open Source
Cost
External
Internal

14. Costs (continued)
• Proprietary systems “tend to
be expensive to operate when
compared with standards-
based solutions; they have
higher maintenance costs and
lower users-per-server
scalability.” (Gartner)

15. What is Webmail?
• A collection of open source, community
maintained applications
• Built on a flexible application framework
(Horde)
• Components:
– Web-based e-mail (IMP)
– Calendar
– Task list
– Mail filter
– Address book
– Web-based file manager
– Mobile e-mail

16. Other Universities
Using Horde/IMP
• Harvard University
• Indiana University
• MIT
• Purdue University
• University of Colorado at Boulder
• University of Colorado at Denver
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Texas at Austin
• Yale University
• Many others…

17. Unique Features
• Extensible architecture
• Fully configurable
• Integrated portal
• Integrated quota support
• Improved support for shared
calendars
• Extensive mail filtering options
• Robust support for large accounts
(> 2 GB)

18. Webmail Interface
• All features supported in all
browsers
• Options configurable per-user
and system-wide
• Customizable look and feel
• Optional integrated portal

19. Quota Management
• Integrated quota display in
mailbox view
• Displays both current and
maximum disk usage
• Support for custom quota
systems via driver framework

20. Backup/Recovery
• Existing backup system allows
recovery of:
– Entire accounts
– Collections of mail folders
– Individual mail folders
(~5 requests per week; 5
minute restore time)
– Webmail address books,
calendars, task lists

21. Spam/Virus Protection
• Continue using existing
PureMessage service
• Potential to expand protection
• Improved message filter
capability

22. Standards vs.
Proprietary
• Open standards allow us to
choose the best mix of open
source and commercial
software:
– Open source in some cases
(Horde/IMP, Apache, sendmail)
– Commercial in others (IBM
Directory Server, PureMessage)

23. Standards vs. Proprietary
(continued)
• Open standards allow us to
choose most secure, reliable,
best of breed components
• Proprietary solutions create
vendor lock-in
– decreases flexibility
– decreases leverage in future
negotiations

24. Interoperability
• Supports Exchange meeting
requests
• Multi-domain Active Directory
authentication supported
• No conversion of users
required
• Accounts may be provisioned
through existing mechanisms

25. Interoperability
(continued)
• Webmail portal can incorporate
views of other web-based
applications
• Mobile interface available
• Can be modified to meet current
and future needs
• All POP/IMAP clients supported on
all platforms
• All modern browsers supported on
all platforms

26. Demonstration