dovecot - May 2007 - What would you tell the CIO in an "ABCs of Email" overview?

One of the key points that came up when I researched and wrote the  
"Five Things CIOs Should Know about Fighting Spam" article (http:// 
www.cio.com/article/28830) was that they should know the basics of  
how email works. Otherwise, said plenty of techies, the CIO won't  
have the first idea of what the email admin is complaining about.

So I'm going to do my part. I'm going to write an "ABCs of
Email"
article (to accompany the many other ABCs articles we have on  
CIO.com, at http://www.cio.com/article/40242 ). I'd like your input  
on the topics that should be included, keeping in mind the fact that  
the target reader is a CIO, IT manager, or someone who wants to  
understand the basics, *not* actively get involved in email management.

You don't need to write an essay for me or inundate me with links  
(though hey, if you want to make my life easier I shall not  
complain). What I'm looking for, primarily, are the categories of  
information that I should cover. In other words, if your CIO had an  
email ephiphany and asked you to give a half-hour presentation, what  
would you include?

This won't be an "Expert says..." article nor will it be
"Geek on the
street says...." I intend to compile and research the "least you need
to know" for the not-necessarily-techie bosses out there. And  
hopefully the end result will be that you have one less dumb question  
to deal with in your life.

So: any suggestions? (You can reply privately if you prefer.)

Esther Schindler
senior online editor, CIO.com
her blog: http://advice.cio.com/taxonomy/term/34

Perhaps the first fundamental is that Internet email isn't handled by one 
kind of server. It's a suite of protocols that are served by distinct 
processes.

At minimum, you have inbound (POP3, IMAP) and outbound (SMTP) servers. You 
may also have a separate authentication server (LDAP) and perhaps other 
pieces providing calendaring, web mail (HTTP), and central storage of 
client configuration (ACAP).

The different protocols exist not because some programmer thought it would 
be cool to create a new protocol, but because they serve completely 
different needs. For example, POP3 was designed to support lightweight 
disconnected clients. IMAP provides server-based storage of mail folders. 
LDAP provides authentication not just for mail systems but for many other 
applications. (I'm sure experts for each of these protocols could provide 
better explanations. The RFC for each probably has a motivation section 
that you can quote.)

An important "slide" in the presentation would show the plumbing that
ties
all these protocols and processes together and shows how mail moves through 
the system. In some cases the plumbing itself is variable. For example, 
spam and virus processing might occur within several servers or within a 
client.

On 5/7/07, Esther Schindler <esther at bitranch.com>
wrote:
> One of the key points that came up when I researched and wrote the
> "Five Things CIOs Should Know about Fighting Spam" article
(http://
> www.cio.com/article/28830) was that they should know the basics of
> how email works. Otherwise, said plenty of techies, the CIO won't
> have the first idea of what the email admin is complaining about.
>
While its not 'ABC' the email loop is covered quite well here and that
loop is needed to understand spam. Any talk if rcpt rules, relays,
dnsbl, group level / user level bayes, will havea good reference
there. http://wiki.dovecot.org/MailServerOverview

Buffetted with something like these
http://www.dbmail.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=bigpicture
http://www.postfix.org/big-picture.html

-- 
Gabriel Millerd

The article is live... as part 1, anyway.

As you'll soon see, it was impossible to do an ABCs of Email that  
covered both technology and people issues. So I've split these into  
two articles. I'll do the "POP vs IMAP" stuff separately... as
soon
as I recover from this one.

I tried to make this document the one you want to print out and slap  
on an exec's desk when they do something totally dumb. (This way it's  
not YOU saying they were clueless.) Feel free to post anywhere you   
like... I'm such a slut for pageviews.

Comments and corrections are welcome, particularly if they also  
include praise. :-)
ABC: An Introduction to E-mail Management

Helping nontechnical managers calibrate expectations, learn the key  
issues in e-mail management and identify issues in setting corporate  
e-mail policies.
http://www.cio.com/article/128450/ 
ABC_An_Introduction_to_E_mail_Management

Esther Schindler
senior online editor, CIO.com



On May 7, 2007, at 12:37 PM, Esther Schindler wrote:
> One of the key points that came up when I researched and wrote the  
> "Five Things CIOs Should Know about Fighting Spam" article
(http://
> www.cio.com/article/28830) was that they should know the basics of  
> how email works. Otherwise, said plenty of techies, the CIO won't  
> have the first idea of what the email admin is complaining about.
>
> So I'm going to do my part. I'm going to write an "ABCs of
Email"
> article (to accompany the many other ABCs articles we have on  
> CIO.com, at http://www.cio.com/article/40242 ). I'd like your input  
> on the topics that should be included, keeping in mind the fact  
> that the target reader is a CIO, IT manager, or someone who wants  
> to understand the basics, *not* actively get involved in email  
> management.
>
> You don't need to write an essay for me or inundate me with links  
> (though hey, if you want to make my life easier I shall not  
> complain). What I'm looking for, primarily, are the categories of  
> information that I should cover. In other words, if your CIO had an  
> email ephiphany and asked you to give a half-hour presentation,  
> what would you include?
>
> This won't be an "Expert says..." article nor will it be
"Geek on
> the street says...." I intend to compile and research the "least
> you need to know" for the not-necessarily-techie bosses out there.  
> And hopefully the end result will be that you have one less dumb  
> question to deal with in your life.
>
> So: any suggestions? (You can reply privately if you prefer.)
>
> Esther Schindler
> senior online editor, CIO.com
> her blog: http://advice.cio.com/taxonomy/term/34
>