ReSoft Enterprise Messaging/DLP Blog

J. Peter Bruzzese, InfoWorld’s Enterprise Windows column blogger, published an article yesterday highlighting Mailscape as compared to Microsoft’s SCOM (System Center Operations Manager) entitled “A better monitor for your mission-critical Exchange environment.” The article examines the trends taking place in the Microsoft infrastructure management tools market space, and how SCOM and Mailscape take different approaches to managing messaging systems.

His piece touches on the complexity of SCOM and the resources necessary to learn, install, and deploy such a comprehensive tool. While SCOM has everything and anything an Exchange Admin could wish for, it does not prove to be an effective tool for the first-line responders in organizations – the help desk operators. In comparison, Bruzzese examines the main benefits of a tool such as Mailscape; the key selling points being its ease of installation and graphical interface that is intuitive enough for the help desk to utilize. Bruzzese has historically been a supporter of Microsoft tools, but in this piece he takes a fresh look at SCOM in particular and asks a very poignant question that most Admins should ask themselves before purchasing a monitoring tool – can the front-line responders in your organization, typically the help desk, be able to use the tool to effectively diagnose problems?

Mailscape is an award-winning total systems management tool that combines all the key components for Exchange monitoring, reporting and administration into a single, intuitive solution. Mailscape’s web-based Dashboard that provides a birds’ eye view over your entire Exchange and BES environments makes it simple to quickly diagnose and solve problems before they affect end users. More importantly, it empowers everyone in an organization, from the Exchange Admin and CIO to the help desk, to be able to proactively monitor the messaging system.

Click here to read the article on Infoworld’s website.

More at http://www.re-soft.com/product/mailscape.htm

The 17a-4 Data Parser™ takes messaging data generated by many platforms and formats the content into compliant .eml or .msg files which may then be forwarded and captured into the institution’s primary email archive. This allows you to review messages from all sources from a single point. It supports:

• Blackberry® SMS
• Microsoft SharePoint Wiki/ blogs/ list Content
• Microsoft LiveMeeting®
• Symantec MessageLabs® Data Streams
• Bloomberg® Data Streams
• reuters Messaging® Data Streams
• LivePerson® Data Streams
• IM Trader® Message Data Streams

We are available to answer any questions, set up demos and provide pricing.More at http://www.re-soft.com/product/17a-4dataparser.htm

Mailscape has been selected as the winner in the Exchange Server Administration category of the MSExchange.org Readers‟ Choice survey for the second year running.

If you are considering a move from legacy email systems or need to rationalize multiple email environments, consider the Inware Shuttle Manager™. It is an industry-proven mail utility designed to migrate e-mail, attachments, calendars, contacts, folders, directories and mail lists. Shuttle Manager can migrate to and from virtually all email platforms while maintaining the integrity of each message.

Scalable, Proven Architecture

Since its introduction to the marketplace in 1995, the Shuttle Manager has successfully performed e-mail migrations for organizations Worldwide. The Shuttle Manager provides a solid migration solution for small businesses with as few as 10 users, to larger projects with more than 500,000 users.

Performance Driven

Shuttle Manager has the ability to migrate data 5 times faster than the standard free migration wizard. Its modular architecture enables the extraction and loading of e-mail data to occur as separate processes; providing maximum flexibility for incorporating e-mail migration into current processes.

Reliable, Accurate Conversion

Shuttle Manager provides complete address conversion in message headers, calendars and groups, ensuring all messages can be forwarded and replied to post migration.

Parallel Migration Support

Shuttle Manager supports parallel installations of the migration console enabling multiple servers to extract and load simultaneously - significantly reducing migration time.

DirSync™ Co-existence
The Directory Synchronization™ (DirSync) provides enterprise quality two-way directory synchronization with such e-mail systems as Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Exchange, and LDAP2 and LDAP3-compliant directories as well as others. DirSync performs a point-to-point synchronization leading to a two-step process for each email system. This point-to-point architecture eliminates the need to declare a “master” and “slave” relationship between the directories. This was designed so that each local directory is an authority on its local IDs. Once a change is detected on the local system, it is then propagated out to the systems of which it is connected. This process ensures that when local administrators make changes to an ID, that any change (address or phone number) is updated on the system(s)

Architecture
Inware Shuttle Manager’s architecture consists of an Extractor, which extracts data into a meta file, then transfers the meta file to a Shuttle Loader. Each Extractor and Loader can be run on one machine, or has the flexibility to extract data locally at one location, and then transfer the files to the Loader on another machine at another location.

Multiple instances of the E-Mail Shuttle can run simultaneously providing scalability for
managing multiple migration projects.

The E-Mail Shuttle architecture offers an administrator the flexibility to migrate only certain data elements with select users. For example, if there was not a requirement to migrate calendar data for the Human Resources Department, but this data was required to be migrated for the offices of the Executive staff, Inware Shuttle provides the administrator this option.

The Shuttle Manager manages migrations from server to server; thus, eliminating the need for end-user intervention during the migration process.

Fidelity of data types is preserved including attachments, RTF, HTML, free/busy, priority and sensitivity flags, categories, read/unread marks and others.

You can request a demo at http://www.re-soft.com/evalinware.htm

With over a century of experience, and 7 divisions spanning 80 countries, VINCI Construction‟s unrivaled level of expertise in building, specialized civil and hydraulic engineering, and facilities and project management, has allowed the French company to become the worldwide leader in the construction industry.

VINCI Construction is the parent company of VINCI Construction France, whose dynamic growth, particularly in the area of job creation, is aiding in the expansion of VINCI‟s global presence. VINCI Construction France was integral in the management of such notable projects as the new visitor entrance to the Louvre, the Stade de France, the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles, and the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Great Britain‟s first high-speed line between London and Paris.

When VINCI Construction France‟s IT department began planning their migration, they quickly realized that in order to successfully migrate to Exchange 2007 they would first need to better understand their existing environment to ensure that their new messaging platform was designed correctly. While searching for reporting tools, they came across Mailscape® and its sleek, one-look dashboard. Mailscape is a unique and innovative systems management tool that combines all the key elements for Exchange monitoring, administration, and reporting in a single solution.

Mailscape‟s extensive reporting proved to be very helpful for Mathieu Mansion, VINCI Construction France‟s Exchange Administrator, when it came time for his team to plan their migration to Exchange 2007. Mansion explains, “I was concerned about the risks associated with moving all of our data, but Mailscape helped mitigate those risks by monitoring my system‟s resources and making sure the transaction logs didn‟t fill up the disk space. It made our migration to Exchange 2007 a much less daunting task, and continued to help us after the migration was complete.”

After having lived with Mailscape for over 18 months, Mathieu Mansion and the rest of the IT Department at VINCI Construction France are wishing they had found Mailscape sooner. Mansion explains why he initially decided to choose Mailscape over the other software products he considered: “It was easy to install and we received benefits from the software instantly. In addition, the support team at ENow was unbelievably responsive and attentive to our needs.”

Mansion summarizes his team‟s experience with Mailscape by concluding, “In short, Mailscape has allowed us to be proactive instead of reactive in how we manage our global Exchange system.”

More at: http://www.re-soft.com/product/mailscape.htm

The new Fall 2009 ReSoft Buyers Guide is now available online highlighting all the solutions offered by ReSoft.

New technologies include Notes to Exchange 2007 migration, how to integrate between Active Directory and Google Apps, Blackberry Performance Monitoring and Distribution List Management:

• Mailbox Size, Retention, Content Management
• Data-Loss Protection against Intellectual
• Property & Liability from Damaging or Confidential Information Leaks
• Lotus Notes to Exchange 2007 migration tools
• Blackberry & Mobile Email Performance
• Encrypted Email & Secure Document Delivery
• Email & Instant Messaging non-tamperable
• Archiving & E-Discovery
• Active Directory Management & Reporting
• Sametime & Microsoft OCS enhancements
• OWA, Outlook Calendar Security & Usability
• Email Performance Metrics & Alerting

 Download it at http://www.re-soft.com/zipfiles/catalog.pdf

Bodek and Rhodes is one of the nation’s leading wholesalers of imprintable apparel and accessories. A family-owned business headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, Bodek and Rhodes offers an impressive 37 different brands of apparel to their network of screen printers, embroiderers, promotional products and uniform companies.  

Traditionally, Bodek and Rhodes’s management used inbound and outbound call volume as a means of measuring the performance and productivity of their sales teams. Recently, several members of their sales teams approached Sam Gerber, the Vice President of Business Development, with the fact that they spend a majority of their time and effort communicating with clients via email.

Armed with this newly-found knowledge, the network administrator for Bodek and Rhodes, Barbara Campbell, decided to search for a solution that would capture key email statistics and monitor the sales teams’ performance and productivity.  Most of the products the IT team initially came across did not match the company’s needs—they were either too complex or too expensive. When Bodek and Rhodes found Mailscape® they knew it was a perfect match.

Their IT team utilized Mailscape®’s detailed message traffic reports to optimize their sales teams’ performance. Mailscape® is a unique and innovative systems management tool that combines all the key elements of Exchange monitoring, administration and reporting in a single solution. Mailscape®’s sleek dashboard now provides Bodek and Rhodes with vital information about each server’s current state and growth rate to facilitate proactive Exchange management.  Right away, Mailscape® provided management with customizable reports which could generate email statistics showing monthly, weekly, or daily data for an individual, a department or the entire company. The VP of Business Development was impressed with Mailscape®’s simplicity. Gerber states: “What’s nice about this tool is that it’s simple enough that management can use it just as easily as the IT team can. It also helped disseminate information across all levels of our company. With MaiIscape®, our sales team is now much more efficient and productive with their email communications.”

The new Spring 2009 ReSoft Buyers Guide is now available online highlighting all the solutions offered by ReSoft.

New technologies include how to integrate between Active Directory and Google Apps, Blackberry Performance Monitoring and Exchange Distribution List Management.

Main focus areas are:

• Mailbox Size, Retention, Content Management
• Data-Loss Protection against Intellectual
• Property & Liability from Damaging or Confidential Information Leaks
• Lotus Notes to Exchange 2007 migration tools
• Blackberry & Mobile Email Performance
• Encrypted Email & Secure Document Delivery
• Email & Instant Messaging non-tamperable
• Archiving & E-Discovery
• Active Directory Management & Reporting
• Sametime & Microsoft OCS enhancements
• OWA, Outlook Calendar Security & Usability
• Email Performance Metrics & Alerting

 Download it at http://www.re-soft.com/zipfiles/catalog.pdf

While Replay AppImage is a great disaster recovery tool, many of our customers have integrated the DR features to make application and patch testing more efficient. If you, or your dev team, could benefit from a test lab environment, take a look at Replay AppImage.Here are some highlights from the latest blog post on AppAdmins on the topic.The life cycle of an Application is usually a lot longer than most people in the backup world realize. Backup people are trained to think about “Production”. What, if any, is the role of Backup and Recovery in the development side of the house? An application usually arrives long before it goes into production. Typically, the application is installed in a development lab. The dev team then spends time learning the application and the programming interfaces. They then go off to build a roadmap, a strawman of what they would like it to do, and finally, a prototype of the finished first version of the production application. Next stage is the actual coding and testing. Finally, when it is working correctly to specification, data is loaded and then it is rolled into production. When it hits production, mainstream backup is added. Meanwhile, that application may have been up for a year or more.Most dev teams are pretty smart. They usually end up building their own backup systems to protect their assets. Could the dev team use the added benefits of centrally managed backup and recovery software? As they say in one of my new favorite classics, the movie Fargo, “Oh, you betcha! Yup!”. More importantly, Could they use a direct link to production? The answer is Yes. Testing is an ongoing thing.With the addition of Virtual Machines (VM), testing can be much easier. You can stand up a VM and restore data to it. The only issue is: Are you using the closest possible setup to mimic production at that point? There are some recovery products that allow you to export whole servers as VMs, allowing you to very quickly have a test lab up which is a complete mirror of production, such as Replay AppImage

More at : http://www.re-soft.com/replay

MailScape for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is an innovative systems management tool that provides monitoring and reporting capabilities to help administrators ensure that their users wireless mobile devices stay connected.

The MailScape OneLook Dashboard gives instant color-coded feedback on the health of the Blackberry network

Key Benefits For BlackBerry Enterprise Server

For BlackBerry servers specifically, Mailscape monitors these key performance metrics:

• Exchange Link - Monitors communication between the BES and Exchange server. Alerts to problems detected based on user/server-level thresholds.
• BES Status - Monitors BES worker threads and notifies you of potential issues that could inhibit mail flow to and from devices.
• BES Queue - Monitors count of pending messages bound for each device and notifies you of any problems detected based on user-level thresholds.
• RIM Link - Monitors the SRP connection between the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and RIM network.
• Carrier Status – Detects if a user’s wireless carrier is having an outage.

Has your management asked you to provide a list of all BlackBerry users? Has your procurement department inquired as to how many of a particular BlackBerry models you have deployed? Do you need to determine the number of users on a specific wireless carrier? Do all of your devices have the correct IT security policy? 

If you answered yes, you will see the value and time saved by the reporting features in MailScape.

And Mailscape can be extended to monitor Exchange & Active Directory health within the same dashboard, facilitating proactive Email management.

Register for a web demo and to download the eval version at:
http://www.re-soft.com/evalmailscape.htm