Scalable IMAP Services: Theory, Practice, and Non-technical Issues
Brad Knowles
Topic: Email/DNS/Spam
Audience: Intermediate users
Description:
The three major open-source IMAP servers for *nix (UW IMAP, Courier-IMAP, and Cyrus) will be discussed. The focus will be on scalability, and comparing and contrasting with some commercial alternatives. Two examples of the DIHSES architecture will be presented, as well as a similar architecture as modified for an Enterprise customer in the Netherlands.
However, there are also hidden/unexpected costs and requirements that go along with implementing a customer-visible IMAP service. Things that may work for an Enterprise or a commercial outsourcing firm do not necessarily scale well in an ISP or "free service" model.
Just because something is technically possible doesn't necessarily mean that it is feasible to do so with adequate backups and failover, or that it can be done without raising excessive liability or privacy issues.
Just because we can do something, doesn't necessarily mean that we should.
AOL and Gmail will be used as contrasting models -- of what not to do.
Prerequisites:
Intermediate knowledge of how Internet e-mail works.
History:
The LISA 2000 invited talk "Design and Implementation of Highly Scalable E-Mail Systems" gave the theory of building a scalable IMAP implementation, but there wasn't any practice to go along with that theory. The purpose of this talk is to bring in some real-world experience.
Posted: Jan 23, 2007 07:23:52 PM; Last change: Jan 24, 2007 07:38:33 AM
The Speaker: Brad Knowles
Location: Austin, Texas
Phone: +1-512-306-9073
Email: brad@shub-internet.org
Website: http://www.shub-internet.org/brad/
Will travel: Anywhere
Payment required: All offers
Compensation required: negotiable per hour
Other payment info: Willing to consider all offers.
Bio:
Brad Knowles has specialized in Internet e-mail and DNS administration for more than a decade, and has provided the benefit of his experience to the U.S. Department of Defense, America Online, and Collective Technologies, among others.
Among other things, he is currently looking for work in a consulting company as well as investigating the creation of his own consulting company in Austin, TX, has written the article "It's About Time..." on the Network Time Protocol published in the October 2006 issue of _;login:_ magazine from USENIX, has co-authored booklet #15 in the SAGE "Short Topics" series ("Internet Postmaster: Duties and Responsibilities" with Nick Christenson), and is still trying to write his first book.
Posted: Jan 23, 2007 06:56:44 PM; Last change: Jan 23, 2007 07:24:39 PM
Other Talks by this speaker
Domain Name Server Comparison: BIND 8 vs. BIND 9 vs. djbdns vs. ???
Design and Implementation of Highly Scalable Internet E-mail Systems
MTA Performance Comparison: sendmail & postfix on *BSD
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