Linuxworld SF: Red Hat mulls Exchange competitor

IDG News Service - Red Hat Inc. shed a little more light this week on how it plans to develop the directory and certificate management software it bought from America Online Inc.'s Netscape division. But the company remains undecided about whether it will commercialize other assets it acquired in the deal, including messaging and collaboration software that analysts say could lead to an open-source alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server.
Red Hat purchased the Netscape assets, including the Netscape Directory Server and Netscape Certificate Management System, at the end of 2004. Since then, it has rebranded the products as the Red Hat Directory Server and the Red Hat Certificate System. It is also in the process of releasing the source code to its directory server to the open-source community.
In an interview conducted during the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco this week, Mike Ferris, Red Hat's director of identity and security solutions, said that his company now plans to release the Certificate System under an open-source license, although no timetable has been set for this.
"We're in the process of working with the community to make sure we can open-source it," he said.
Although the directory and certificate products were the focus of the Netscape acquisition, Red Hat also picked up other server products that could form the basis of a competitor to Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange messaging server, analysts said. That software includes the Netscape Messaging Server, as well as Web, calendar and collaboration servers. Those products were acquired by AOL in 1998.
An Exchange alternative is something that does not really exist in the open-source community today, according to Anne Thomas Manes, research director at Burton Group. "I think that the open-source community would probably jump at the opportunity to get a good foundation for a strong message server," she said.
Ferris was tight-lipped on whether Red Hat would begin selling the Messaging Server, which is probably the most widely used of the remaining Netscape products. "It's something we see as a viable technology," he said. "The question is, Is the market ready for it?" he said.
Another important question is whether it would be easier for Red Hat to simply expand its partnership with IBM, whose Lotus Workplace is being heavily promoted as an alternative to Exchange.
Though Novell has targeted Microsoft Exchange with an open-source product of its own, called Hula, one analyst said it was unlikely that Red Hat would willingly enter into a direct fight with Microsoft's messaging and collaboration products.
"I'm not sure that Red Hat is