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Executive Summary: Message Backbone Switches

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Messaging Backbone Features Testing Task List

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RFP Collaborative Computing Solutions, Features, August 1, 1997 Sync or Swim? Will Your Mail Systems Float Together or Drift Into Chaos?, Features, January 15, 1998 Promises, Promises, Features, November 1, 1998 Metadirectories: Keeping User Info in Sync, Features, January 25, 1999

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To view the Report card on Messaging Backbones
E-mail networks have three tiers: An e-mail client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes; an e-mail server, such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino; and an e-mail backbone, which moves the mail between the e-mail servers. E-mail backbones link your e-mail systems, synchronize their directories and provide the necessary buttons, knobs and adjustments to tame dangerous e-mail messages.

For larger sites, a dedicated backbone is crucial for maintaining reliability and control.

How We Tested To test e-mail backbones, we set up a network with a handful of the most popular proprietary e-mail systems: Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Mail and Exchange, IBM Corp.'s Notes and cc:Mail. We added X.400, Internet e-mail and some lesser-known systems, including Digital Equipment Corp.'s TeamLinks. Then we invited vendors into the lab to build a backbone that could link as many of these systems as possible in the course of two days. To test what we considered the critical features of a backbone, we assigned each vendor a list of tasks, ranging from security and logging control to MIME header munging. (See "Testing Task List" for specifics on how each switch handled these tasks.)

We ended up testing four backbone products: Control Data Systems' Mail*Hub 98, Innosoft International's PMDF, ISOCOR's N-PLEX Connect and Wingra Technologies' Missive. PMDF won our Editor's Choice award with its impressive flexibility and power--both of which are more valuable in the world of e-mail backbones and message switches than a slick configuration GUI. Mail*Hub came in just behind PMDF, also offering impressive flexibility within a powerfully comprehensive suite. However, it lags behind PMDF in its support for Internet security standards, and it doesn't provide equivalent cutting-edge security features.

N-PLEX Connect earned third place, impressing us with its distributed management, but falling down in the area of control tasks. Though Missive finished at the back of the pack, offering less flexibility than PMDF or Mail*Hub, it boasts an excellent GUI and easy-to-use management tools. Unlike the rest of our participating vendors, Wingra has chosen to focus on migration tools; most sites use its offering to migrate e-mail from legacy systems to a new backbone. Pricing for these products ran the gamut--from a base price of $2,000 for Innosoft's and ISOCOR's backbones to a lofty starting price of $50,000 for Wingra's Missive and even more for Control Data Systems' Mail*Hub.