[TriLUG] [Fwd: LUG: email, im and vpn in large companies]

[Jon Carnes]

On Thu, 2003-05-22 at 12:22, Pam Huntley wrote:

> Hi folks,
> 
> What do most large companies use for email, IM, and vpn clients and 
> infrastructure?  Particularly in mixed environments where both Linux and 
> Windows are used.  What types of protocols do companies use?  What are 
> the linux clients that are used in mixed environments? (and I mean 
> supported GUI clients here).  I'm sure there's lots of stuff I'm 
> missing, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
> 
At some larger companies that I've worked for we used,
  Email:
   MTA = Sendmail (or Postfix) and Exchange
   Clients = Outlook, Outlook Express, Web-based CGI's
   Linux based Clients = Kmail (imap and pop), Evolution (imap and pop),
Web-based

  IM: everything under the sun (Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc)

  VPN:
   Site-to-site: IP Sec (using OpenBSD servers)
   Client-to-site: PPTP, IP Sec, SSH/PPP
  
===
Most modern apps are rapidly becoming Web-enabled. Either they publish
directly to the web via cgi's or they have a gateway that allows access
via a web-based java/cgi app. This removes the OS barrier.

The only modern application remaining as a barrier to free OS choice
(for general business use) is the Office suite.  Office applications are
huge and run too slowly via web-based applications so they still need to
run locally. 

There are some intelligent choices for Office suites that run across
multiple OS'es. Open Office is a good choice, and also inter-operates
with other Office suites.

HtH - Jon Carnes