Holmesglen TAFE to stick with GroupWise after a decade
TAFE Victoria in Holmesglen has not changed its messaging and collaboration platform since it moved from Netscape to Novell's GroupWise almost 10 years ago — and doesn't plan to do so any time soon.
Instead, the TAFE plans to upgrade to GroupWise 2014, the latest edition released by Novell, for its mobility and web-based administration console features, enabling users to access management functions anywhere with a browser.
"We haven't had a preliminary view of it yet, but we're quite interested in the web-based console as it will let us maintain it remotely, which is good for my engineers," said Paul Abschinski, CIO of Holmesglen TAFE.
"The other aspect is the mobility features that are promised. We're keen to get our hands on the more mobile aspect, which will align with our overall strategy."
Being a previous user of Microsoft Exchange for a majority of his career, Abschinski said one of the points about GroupWise that struck him was that it is very low maintenance, as the platform does not require a team of engineers to deploy or maintain it.
"It's quite robust and it has all the features that Exchange has," he said.
According to Abschinski, GroupWise is ideal because it's an open standard platform, which the TAFE attempts to maintain when it comes to any technology it utilises.
"It avoids lock-ins, in terms of pricing and integration with other products. Remaining open standard as much as possible means you're not tied into one particular proprietary technology," he said.
Other technology features of GroupWise 2014 include Active Directory support; 64-bit agents; advance querying and reporting; and delegated admin rights.
Another feature the company highlights about Groupwise 2014 — particularly given that data regulations and security concerns are increasing amongst enterprises — is that it's a "secure, reliable, and cost-effective solution that keeps data within IT control."
In the past, Novell has been criticised for security flaws in its GroupWise product.
The deployment of GroupWise at Holmesglen TAFE is expected to be completed in Q3 2014.