Zimbra debuts open-source collaboration suite beta

Computerworld - Messaging and collaboration vendor Zimbra Inc. has released a beta version of its new open-source Zimbra Collaboration Suite, which integrates other applications such as antivirus, antispam and search software.
In an announcement Monday, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company said the suite is designed to make it easier for IT administrators to add features to e-mail and other collaboration tools.
Satish Dharmaraj, co-founder and CEO of the company, said the suite can be used to create a system where other applications can easily be added to collaboration programs to help users work together.
The suite uses a feature-rich thin Web client based on Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), along with Web services tools, to bring the features together.
The key for customers, he said, is that many of the key add-ons, such as antivirus, antispam, archiving, compliance and storage tools, are already built in, making it easier to deploy and use.
"All of that stuff is preintegrated, Dharmaraj said. "Today, to get it all you have to buy eight different products from eight vendors, which adds licensing and manageability costs."
Zimbra Collaboration Suite supports all major Web browsers and mail clients, including Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and Apple's Mail application.
One beta user, Jared Watkins, a Linux administrator at Charlotte, N.C.-based business news publisher American City Business Journals, said he's been testing the application for several weeks and has been pleased.
Watkins said that since he already uses many open-source applications included in the suite -- including ClamAV antivirus, back-end mail application Cyrus IMAP and antispam scanning engine Amavis-New -- he is comfortable with the package and its capabilities.
"It takes it beyond just simple e-mail," Watkins said, pointing to the full-featured search functions it offers, as well as document management tools and calendaring and organizational features.
American City Business Journals primarily uses Windows for its 2,500 e-mail accounts, but the company has no interest in moving its e-mail users to Microsoft Exchange Server because of the expense and added complexities, he said. In addition, Exchange doesn't include some of the innovative features in Zimbra, such as the ability to link keywords in e-mails to open external applications.
"It's all customizable," Watkins said. "It's a nice, integrated package."
The company plans to decide by early next year whether to use the software, he said. Since it is still in beta, some desired features, such as multinode clustering capabilities, are not yet completed and will be evaluated later.
Robert Mahowald, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said the Zimbra suite "hasan incredible amount of capabilities and support" for other applications, which allows user companies to make it more extensible.
"The fact that they can harness all these capabilities together is a good thing and bodes well for open-source," he said.
Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research Inc. in Black Diamond, Wash., said that by integrating Web services into e-mail applications, Zimbra is creating interesting technology. "I think there's certainly a lot of potential," Osterman said.

Read more about Topic Center in Computerworld's Topic Center Topic Center.