Open Source Email Done Right

For years the status quo in corporate email servers with the collaboration features has been Microsoft Exchange. The landscape changed when open source collaboration servers started popping up giving competition to Exchange. One that has risen to the top is Zimbra. Zimbra not only allows sharing contacts, calendars, and tasks, but it also allows the user to store documents, maintain a wiki, and use it for IM. Zimbra also allows third-party extensions in the form of Zimlets.

Since Zimbra runs on Linux and is open source, a lot of IT managers tend to be a bit scared of Zimbra. But Zimbra is actually pretty easy to setup. It can also be easier to setup and debug than Exchange if you have a little bit of Linux experience. With a little bit of Linux experience, you can even setup Zimbra in an hour! Zimbra is also built to be clustered and each part can be separated out onto a separate server to spread loads.

The Zimbra client looks a lot like Outlook and rivals its functionality. Users can view their mail, filter it, set up personas, and share out their Inboxes. Users can send to contacts in their address book, another user’s shared address book or a contact inside their company’s Global Address List (GAL). Users can collaborate with others by sharing calendars, tasks, wiki, and documents as well as over instant messages. All of this can be done right inside the web interface. Zimbra can even integrate with other applications such as Alfresco, Xythos, and your company's CRM through Zimlets. Zimbra also emulates ActiveSync and allows any mobile phone that supports ActiveSync to sync with its data.

Zimbra can be configured to allow any client to connect that supports standard POP or IMAP connections. It also has an Outlook connector that synchronizes all your Zimbra data with Outlook including contacts, calendars, tasks, and shares. Zimbra also has a desktop client that has the same look and feel of the web client, but it downloads the data and is available offline. Their client is called Zimbra Desktop and it can be used to connect to any Zimbra server or any IMAP or POP server as well.

Zimbra is definitely a great alternative to Exchange for a company with a  tight IT budget or as a flexible option. It can be intimidating at first, but Zimbra can be setup very quickly. Zimbra can be setup with a very small investment of time with a general understanding of Linux and DNS.