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Sun Java Communications Suite 5 Deployment Planning Guide

Communications Suite Overview

Sun Java Communications Suite 5 is a secure, cost-effective communications and collaborations offering. Communications Suite addresses customer concerns about costs, capabilities, and the security of the traditional communications infrastructure by offering a secure, scalable, lower total cost of ownership alternative to other communications and collaboration solutions.

Communications Suite provides the email, calendar, and instant messaging solutions necessary to meet both enterprise and ISP communications and collaboration needs. The products and services that form Communications Suite provide a compelling response to common business requirements. All organizations need communications, and many are required to provide these services across large, diverse, and geographically distributed communities of users. Traditional communications solutions are costly, and not sufficient to meet today’s requirements for scalability and security. Communications Suite enables organizations to deploy solutions at a total cost of ownership they can afford.

In addition, Communications Suite provides differentiated services and full-featured collaboration functionality that are required by a diverse audience. Finally, a Communications Suite deployment meets your increased security needs when extending communications outside of a corporate firewall and to mobile users through multiple devices.

The Communications Suite core solution consists of the following component products:

Additional features that enhance the Communications Suite solution include:

Taken as a whole, Communications Suite provides a standards-based, integrated communications and collaboration suite of products for enterprise deployments of many thousands of users, and ISP deployments of hundreds of thousands of users. Communications Suite delivers a robust and flexible platform meeting the diverse communications needs of all types of organizations. Communications Suite is an optimal solution to connect remote offices, distributed workgroups, and global corporate locations.

About Messaging Server

Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 is a high-performance, highly secure messaging platform. Scaling from thousands to millions of users, Messaging Server is suitable for businesses interested in consolidating email servers and reducing the total cost of ownership of the communications infrastructure. Messaging Server provides extensive security features that help ensure the integrity of communications through user authentication, session encryption, and the appropriate content filtering to help prevent spam and viruses. Messaging Server also can provide an archive for instant messaging communications. Furthermore, Messaging Server supports archiving through the AXS-One message archiving system to provide an industrial strength message archiving solution for both compliance and operational archiving.

With Messaging Server, organizations can provide secure, reliable messaging services for entire communities of employees, partners, and customers.

Messaging Server currently ships with two native client user interfaces (UI):

Going forward, no new features will be added to the Messenger Express user interface. It has been deprecated in favor of the Communications Express user interface. Sun Microsystems, Inc. will announce an end-of-life timeline for Messenger Express at a future date.

See Part II, Deploying Messaging Server for more information on Messaging Server concepts and other deployment aspects.

About Calendar Server

Sun Java System Calendar Server 6.3 facilitates team collaboration by enabling users to manage and coordinate appointments, events, tasks, and resources. Through an integrated Web interface or connectors to other calendar clients (including Microsoft Outlook), Calendar Server enables end users to access their personal, public, or group calendars anytime from anywhere, from a Web browser. Deployments use Calendar Server, along with the Messaging Server and Instant Messaging, to offer users a comprehensive communications and collaborative environment.

Calendar Server currently ships with two native client user interfaces (UI):

Calendar Express has been deprecated in favor of the new Communications Express user interface. Going forward, no new features will be added to the Calendar Express user interface. Sun Microsystems, Inc. will announce an end-of-life time line for Calendar Express at a future date.

See Part III, Deploying Calendar Server for more information on Calendar Server concepts and other deployment aspects.

About Instant Messaging

Sun Java System Instant Messaging 7.2 enables secure, real-time communication and collaboration. Instant Messaging combines presence awareness with instant messaging capabilities such as chat, conferences, alerts, news, polls, and file transfers to create a rich collaborative environment. These features enable one-to-one as well as group collaboration through either short-lived communications or persistent venues such as conference rooms or news channels. Instant Messaging, along with Calendar Server and Messaging Server, offers users a comprehensive communications and collaboration environment.

Instant Messaging ensures the integrity of communications through its multiple authentication mechanisms and secure SSL connections. Integration with Sun Java System Portal Server and Sun Java System Access Manager brings additional security features, services-based provisioning access policy, user management, and secure remote access. Furthermore, Instant Messaging supports the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). XMPP enables you to use a number of third-party clients, gateways, and components. Some of these clients aggregate contacts from the public networks. In one client, you can have contacts from AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Sun and other XMPP-based servers.

See Part IV, Deploying Instant Messaging for more information on Instant Messaging concepts and deployment aspects.

About Communications Express

Sun Java System Communications Express 6.3 provides an integrated web-based communications and collaboration client. Communications Express is a common component between Messaging Server and Calendar Server, providing end users with a web interface to their calendar information and mail, as well as an address book.

See Part V, Deploying Communications Express for more information on Communications Express concepts and deployment aspects.

About Communications Sync

Sun Java System Communications Sync 3.0 (formerly Sun ONE Synchronization) is a software product that runs on a Windows personal computer and enables users to synchronize Communications Suite events, tasks, and contacts with mobile devices and personal information managers (PIMs) such as Microsoft Outlook.

See the Communications Sync documentation at the following location for more information:

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/1313.2

About Connector for Microsoft Outlook

Sun Java System Connector for Microsoft Outlook 7.2 enables Outlook to be used as a desktop client with Messaging Server and Calendar Server.

Connector for Microsoft Outlook is an Outlook plug-in that you install on end-users' desktops. Connector for Microsoft Outlook queries Messaging Server for folder hierarchies and email messages. Connector for Microsoft Outlook then converts the information into Messaging API (MAPI) properties that Outlook can display. Similarly, Connector for Microsoft Outlook queries Calendar Server for events and tasks, which are then converted into MAPI properties. Finally, Connector for Microsoft Outlook uses Web Address Book Protocol (WABP) to query Address Book Server for contacts, which are then converted into MAPI properties. With this model, Connector for Microsoft Outlook builds an end-user Outlook view from three separate information sources: mail from Messaging Server, calendar information from Calendar Server, and contacts from Address Book Server.

See the Connector for Microsoft Outlook documentation at the following location for more information:

http://docs.sun.com/coll/1312.2

Communications Suite Component Product Dependencies

Communications Suite products depend on other Sun Java System component products that provide infrastructure services. These component products include Sun Java System Directory Server and, optionally, Sun Java System Access Manager. Additionally, Communications Suite products depend on a web container to serve HTML content and provide HTML connections. You can use Sun Java System Web Server (formerly Sun ONE Web Server) or Sun Java Application Server to fulfill this need.

Communications Suite products also depend on the existence of DNS. You need to have a functioning DNS server before you can install the Communications Suite products.

See Chapter 3, Understanding Product Requirements and Considerations for more information on product dependencies.