Zarafa: Open-source e-mail gets competitive
I'm a huge fan of Zimbra's slick email alternative to Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, but I'll admit to being very impressed by Zarafa, a full Outlook/Exchange replacement with MAPI, Web access, iCal, and ActiveSync support. Zarafa recently became notable because the company open sourced its e-mail alternative to Microsoft Exchange/Outlook.
I spent some time with the Zarafa demo and assuming it administers as nicely as it operates for the end-user, it's a winner. Is it better than Zimbra? After all, Zimbra also has iCal, Web access, ActiveSync, etc.
It's hard to say, given that I wasn't able to put Zarafa through a full workload like I do with Zimbra each day in my work. I think the Zarafa interface is a bit cleaner than Zimbra's...
Zarafa's Web client (click to enlarge).
(Credit: Zarafa)...but one of my primary reasons for loving Zimbra is the Zimlet, making it super-easy to integrate Zimbra with third-party services and applications. (One of my solutions engineers integrated Alfresco with Zimbra in a week.) Zarafa? It is still an island of productivity, not an archipelago of connected islands like Zimbra.
Even so, it's good to see competition in this critical market segment. Despite all the hype around Twitter and other "Web 2.0" communication tools, e-mail is still the crux of enterprise communication. The more robust open-source e-mail alternatives to Exchange, the better. Welcome to the party, Zarafa.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
O3Spaces, developer of open-systems document management and collaboration software, and an alternative to SharePoint, is also integratedwith Zarafa and Zimbra.
After using email/collaboration servers like Exchange and Lotus Notes, it is great to have these options available. And since Microsoft continues to deliver MS OS-based solutions only, it's encouraging to see easy-to-implement, easy-to-use, solutions available across OS platforms (Lotus Notes runs on several platforms, but I hve alwqays found it complicated to implement and configure - it could just be that it offers so much, that it requires more upfront work to get it to run the way the organization wants it to run - but, it does have SameTime!).
Zarafa Web Client was a snap to get going - and easy to learn - I use it to acces work mail, whether at the office, or on the road.
I also installed the new Zimbra Desktop, to access my GMail account, and calendar - was a snap to set up on my laptop running openSUSE, and makes life waseasier when I want to work on email when I am on the road.
With both clients integrated with O3Spaces collaboration repository, I will add easier management of email documents, e-documents and work projects.
Ease of use, and mobile access are key to what most of us are looking for, and there seems to be better options being offered these days.
- by openango February 16, 2009 2:43 PM PST
- The beauty of both solutions is the freedom to run on different platforms - not just limited to Microsoft.
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(3 Comments)Exchange Server has many benefits, but Microsoft software, from Exchange, SharePoint to IE all run on MS OS only.
Zarafa delivers an Exchange alternative that runs on multiple platforms - this is the prime reason to consider implementing Zarafa. And the Web Access is as functional and easy to use as Outlook Web Access.
Zimbra has a nice Desktop client, which also runs on multiple platforms, and enables access to GMail, Yahoo Mail, Live Mail, IMAP and POP accounts(among others) - it's easy to set up, and works as well as Outlook,
In addition to Alfresco, both solutions integrate with O3Spaces Workplace, an Open-Systems document management and collaboration workplace that delivers SharePoint functions across multiple platforms as well.
I am using all three components - Zarafa Web access for work, O3Spaces Workplace for managing my docs and collaborating with my team, and Zimbra Desktop Client for my personal mail client (I also run Mozilla Thunderbird and Evolution for personal use - the last three are prime examples of what is available to most users who look outside the Microsoft box.
Having worked in the document management market for almost 2 dozen years, and worked with and implemented many DM systems, from PC Docs Open, Saros, FileNet, Documentum and Open Text Livelink, it's been much wasier to live with these opensystem offerings, which have provided easier to manage, easier to learn, easier to use, solutons.
I was up and running within an hour with O3Spaces, and although the interface was unfamiliar, I was abel to create my own teams, projects and document stores in a very short time.
Installlng and running Zimbra Desktop was a breeze - and configuring it with my GMail account, was less painless than having to set up MS outlook with Live.Mail or Hotmail (I understand that acces by clients like Zimbra or Outlook require upgrading to a premium account to link to these email addresses and to Yahoo email accounts).
Zarafa took no learning time at all - and linking it to O3Spaces, like Zimbra Mail Server and Outlook, makes it easy to manage email messages as well as e-documents.