And surprisingly, Graf is happy that Gordano is divorced from Active Directory. He's suffered through an AD crash that took Exchange along for the ride, and in a network as small as his, he didn't appreciate all the consultants required to fix it. All told, that mess took Graf four days to clean up, "because Exchange doesn't even let you access the database unless there's an Exchange server running." So Gordano's capability to run independent of AD makes Graf feel safer.

Exchange 12 addresses the problem of accessing the messaging database outside of the Exchange console. But then again, many folks are still running Exchange 5.5, so it may continue to be a sore point for quite a few Exchange admins -- especially in SMBs where senior management may be looking to stretch its e-mail investment as far as possible.

Frankly, I've been pretty impressed with Exchange's feature set -- both in the 2003 version and the upcoming Version 12. But Graf has it right when he says many of these features are aimed at large installations; SMBs just don't need them. And although Microsoft is trying to satisfy these customers with Small Business Server, that's still an all-in-one Microsoft-only solution -- and it continues to tie you tightly to other platforms, including AD and SharePoint.

Opting to look outside the Microsoft fold is simply becoming more attractive to smaller companies looking from a breather from the constant Microsoft license renewal pressures. But also because there are innovative players out there such as Gordano, not just replicating Exchange's feature set, but offering new features as well. Gordano, for example, integrates its own security suite directly into the product, plus the company offers intelligent archiving and even e-mail list management for e-business-oriented types.

All of these generally require add-on products to work with Exchange. And that just represents even more cost to already cash-strapped SMB customers. And Gordano is far from the only player in this market. Other folks include Scalix, Stalker Software's CommuniGate Pro, and even Web-only players like Zimbra. (The InfoWorld Test Center will be reviewing Scalix and Zimbra in the near future.)