This week, I thought that I would try something new.  I am going to focus on a single topic and produce a series on a single topic.  This week’s topic will be on Enterprise Email services’ Global Address List function or GAL for short. 

This is what “The GAL” looks like to all of you Microsoft Exchange Clients out there:

gal

My plan for the week follows:

  • Monday (today) – What is a GAL via an Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder.
  • Tuesday – Why is this important to both Enterprise users and individual users.
  • Wednesday – Why the concept applies to more than just Microsoft Exchange users.
  • Thursday – What I wish was possible using today’s GAL services and what might be possible shortly.  Basically a  GAL wish list.
  • Friday – I will reserve for topics yet to be named based upon the community’s feedback and comments!

As a reminder to new readers, The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals.  It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.  It differs from sites such as Wikipedia because it includes opinions, forecasts, and detractions in addition to just facts.

So today, we focus on Global Address Lists (GAL),  This is how Wikipedia defines the Global Address List:

The Global Address List (GAL) also known as Microsoft Exchange Global Address Book is a directory service within the Microsoft Exchange email system. The GAL contains information for all email users, distribution groups, and Exchange resources. Digital IDs certificates generated by Microsoft Exchange Server Advanced Security IIS or by Microsoft Exchange Key Management Server (KMS) are automatically published in the Global Address Book. Users of Microsoft Outlook can publish to GAL their externally generated PKI certificates that are used for secure e-mail.

Essentially, it provides a directory service for an entire Enterprise.  If you use Microsoft Exchange at work, then the GAL is where you go to find the way to contact, collaborate, and interface with other users.  You find their email addresses, Instant Messaging names, phone numbers, office addresses, mobile phone information, points of contact, etc.  At least that is the idea, in practice, it can be a very frustrating tool for most users to employ successfully.  When you now someone’s name, exactly how to spell it, and which department they work in, it will work like a champ.  Unfortunately, it is next to useless, when you are trying to get in touch with “That guy from accounting with the black hair and glasses who does billing reviews for our West Texas division.”  Making it go from what a bunch of programmers at Microsoft think is best to actually effective is what I would like to focus on this week.

Here are some of the best links on the subject that I found in my search of the web:

Obviously, if you are an Enterprise level Information Technology Professional, then Microsoft Exchange Server and its Global Address List directory functionality are key tools in your productivity set.  I hope that this week’s discussions offer your value.  Please come back tomorrow for more and feel free to comment, make recommendations, and provide feedback via my contact button above or comments below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 2, 2009  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Microsoft Outlook via Stanford.edu


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