ZIMBRA COLLABORATION SUITE (ZCS) 4.0 vs.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Discussion Guide
INTRODUCTION
Zimbra is a privately held, venture-capital funded
company that builds open-source-software
collaboration solutions. To date, they have
focused on e-mail, calendaring, and document
collaboration. They are also promoting mobile
solutions and some integration with voice over IP
(VOIP) software.
Zimbra targets Linux as their primary platform
(Red Hat Enterprise 32-bit and 64-bit versions)
with support for Apple Server, SUSE, and Debian.
The Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 4.0 solution
was officially released in September 2006 and
added the Documents solution, which is a wiki-
style collaboration portal for organizations to
share documents and other information. This
addition competes with the Microsoft® Office
SharePoint® Office 2007 solution and helps make
ZCS more attractive to organizations looking for
an integrated solution.
Zim bra’
s cu rrent t
a r
g etm a rket is t
he small- and
medium-business market segment. Zimbra also
appears to be targeting hosted e-mail providers,
internet service providers (ISPs), and
telecommunication networks (Telcos) as large
growth areas.
According to the G ar
tner,In c.“M i
c r
o soft’s
Exchange 2007 Could Set the Future for E-M a
i
l”
report, typically, Zimbra will be installed for
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries/regions. The names of actual companies and
products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the of publication. This
document is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.
Approved for external usage on 12/01/06.
workers that have less complicated messaging
requirements. Gartner also stated in this report:
“However, organizations must couple decisions
about e-mail with long-term collaboration and
communication plans.” For more information,
read theG ar
tn er,Inc.“M i
cro
so ft’
sEx ch ang e200 7
Could Set the Future for E-Mail”report.
WHAT IS ZIMBRA PROMOTING?
Reliability and simple administration.
Built on the Linux platform with proven open-
source-software components, it features a rich
Asynchronous Javascript Technology and
extensible markup language (XML) (AJAX)
administrative interface and command line
administration. It is also integrated with Red
Hat administrative features for certain tasks.
Low total cost of ownership (TCO).
It can be used on any existing platform and has
integrated hierarchical storage management
(HSM), quotas, delegation, anti-spam/anti-virus
features, and is built on the Linux, Apache,
MySQL, PHP (LAMP) standard.
Extensible and standards compliant.
It was built using LAMP/open-source-software
components with a rich AJAX interface that can
be extended using Zimlets developed by anyone
and can be integrated with any data source.
Operating system independence.
The server can be run on Linux or Apple Server
while the client can be run on Linux, OS X, or
Microsoft Windows®.
User experience.
It includes a fully Web 2.0 AJAX interface
featuring Zimlets for expanded functionality
that is similar across Microsoft Internet
Explorer®, Firefox, and Opera. It also has a
strong search experience and the ability to
rebrand the interface.
Price
They may claim to provide the best value for a
messaging and collaboration suite using the
newest Web 2.0 technology and providing more
value per dollar than Microsoft Exchange Server
2007. According to Zimbra, for the first 25 users
(licenses are sold in blocks of 25); prices start at
$25 per user for the Standard Network Edition
and $35 per user for the Professional Network
E d i
tion. F
o rm ore i
n f
o rma ti
o n,re ad “ Zimbra
Network Edition Pricing. ”
WHAT IS ZIMBRA POSITIONING VS. MICROSOFT?
Zimbra may position itself as a lower cost
alternative to Exchange Server 2007 that
provides more functionality than Exchange
Server 2007.
Zimbra may claim that they offer better security
and more reliability for administrators, including
backup and restore than Exchange Server 2007.
Zimbra may claim it is a more cost effective
solution because it offers HSM and clustering
through Red Hat.
ZIMBRA COLLABORATION SUITE (ZCS) 4.0 vs.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Discussion Guide
The Zimbra solution is Web 2.0 standards
compliant and users have an experience that is
identical across all browsers versus the
proprietary Microsoft Outlook® Web Access
(OWA) interface.
Zimbra may claim it has a more extensible
architecture than Exchange Server 2007
because it uses open-source-software
components.
Zimbra may claim it has a different e-mail
experience; highlighting their new approach to
email, which in reality isn’ t any different than
post office protocol 3 (POP3)/internet message
access protocol (IMAP) email with an AJAX
interface.
Zimbra may target Webmail users where
scalability is an issue. Internet service providers
(ISPs) may also be targeted; this is an area
where Exchange Server 2007 d o esn ’
t norm ally
focus on.
ZIMBRA WEAKNESSES
Its open-source-software bundling (collection of
solutions that are developed separately on
different schedules) may lead to problems when
upgrading individual components.
It relies on Red Hat for scaling and disk
management.
ZCS was released in 2005 so its support track
record is not yet proven. It is a small company
with a limited network of third-party partners.
Its co-existence with Exchange Server 2007 can
lead to increased costs and multiple support
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries/regions. The names of actual companies and
products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the of publication. This
document is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.
Approved for external usage on 12/01/06.
contracts. Zimbra also uses OpenLDAP for only focused on Exchange-to-Zimbra migrations.
Microsoft Active Directory® integration which Interoperability may be limited/complex and
could be another area for potential problems. also focused primarily on Exchange.
It has limited administrative functions and
requires complex command-line interfacing to ZIMBRA STRENGTHS
use its full functionality. Some amateur Linux
administrators may find it challenging to work The open-source-software components are
with because of its complexity. proven solutions by themselves, many with
There is no native support for Outlook. This large existing user bases (MySQL, OpenLDAP,
means that Zimbra requires connectors on the Apache, PHP, SpamAssassin).
client and cannot take advantage of all features. Its’class of service architecture allows for
Connectors typically involve increased costs in simple tiered access to services.
maintaining both client and server compatibility Searching via their Web interface is fast and
and demonstrate a lack of true interoperability robust (AJAX query builder).
between Zimbra and Outlook. This may be a The Verity HTML converter allows for fast
complex route for administrators to maintain rendering of 200 documents to HTML.
and means that functionality in Outlook is not Zimlets, can provide a more interactive user
100%. experience compared to the Microsoft
Zimbra claims that Zimlets, their mash-up equivalent of SmartTags.
technology, has integration into proprietary The Documents solution provides integrated
systems, but their usability or usefulness may wiki-document sharing with powerful
not be proven yet due to the low number of embedded document features.
deployments. The A JA X i
n terfa c
e isp l
e asing an d hasa “wow”
It only has built-in support for their anti- factor due to speed and Zimlets. Additionally,
virus/anti-spam solutions, SpamAssassin and its’interface is identical across Internet
ClamAV. Additionally, SpamAssassin and Explorer/Firefox/Opera.
ClamAV can be run by anyone, even Exchange
users using a separate machine.
Zimbra offers support for VOIP through Asterix,
but this support doesn’ t appear to be effectively
built into their solution and integration may be
limited.
Zimbra has a limited number of migration tools
compared to Exchange Server 2007– it is truly
ZIMBRA COLLABORATION SUITE (ZCS) 4.0 vs.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Discussion Guide
RESPONDING TO ZIMBRA STRENGTHS
While Zimbra components are proven, they may
be complex to keep in synchronization
especially through a bundled solution such as
ZCS. M icrosoft’s upd at
ing and dev elo pm en t
process helps ensure continual parity between
Microsoft solutions such as Exchange Server,
Outlook, Office SharePoint 2007, and Active
Directory.
Advanced permissions are included with
Exchange Server 2007; addressing the
challenges in Exchange Server 2003 with
limiting user access to predefined areas.
Search functionality has improved substantially
in Exchange Server 2007 with continually
indexed mailboxes and changes to cross-
mailbox searching.
Rendering of nearly all document types into
HTML is done through OWA.
Exchange Server 2007 is designed to have
stronger functionality to work with Office
SharePoint 2007 to archive mail and offline
storage than ZCS 4.0. Additionally, OWA
provides portal access to intranet SharePoint
sites.
Exchange Server 2007 has an improved OWA
interface that is designed to be faster and more
responsive than previous versions with
additional functionality (out of office, spell
check, improved address book, Really Simple
Syndication (RSS) reader, and voicemail/fax
integration). OWA Light is also designed to
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Active Directory, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries/regions. The names of actual companies and
products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the of publication. This
document is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.
Approved for external usage on 12/01/06.
provide access to non-Internet Explorer grow with new product releases of these
browsers or users on slower connections. solutions.
In future releases of Office SharePoint Server,
ZIMBRA CHALLENGES its’document collaboration and forms will
become more rich in features.
VOIP capabilities are present in ZCS through
Asterix, but they are limited in comparison to ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
the unified messaging built into Exchange
Server 2007. Zimbra: Zimbra Collaboration suite 4.0 Web site:
Instant messaging isn’ t integrated into Zimbra, http://www.zimbra.com/products/
and presence information is also non-existent.
The Zimbra Documents solution contains wiki- Zimbra: Zimbra Network Edition Pricing Web site
style editing, but doesn’ t have the same http://www.zimbra.com/products/pricing.html
functionality as Office SharePoint 2007 forms
and document sharing. The Office SharePoint Gartner, Inc. report: “
M icro
so
ft
’sExc
h ange 2007
2007 solution contains functionality resembling Could Set the Future for E-Ma
il
”dated 09/
2 6/06
wikis if needed. http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/6/7/
Exchange Server 2007 provides a policy and 8678aee9-41aa-4504-aa3b-7c7973017fe1/2006-
compliance engine, the Microsoft Windows 09-
PowerShell to facilitate scripting, and intelligent 26%20Microsofts%20Exchange%202007%20Could
replication. There is no policy or compliance %20Set%20the%20Future%20of%20Email.pdf
engine in ZCS and there is no ZCS-specific
scripting language. Replication is done through Microsoft Partner Program Web site: Exchange
Red Hat and is not controlled by ZCS itself. Server 2007
https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40026734?
MICROSOFT FUTURE ADVANCEMENTS PS=95000124
You can expect the search functionality,
especially across Exchange Server and
SharePoint, to improve in future releases and to
remain highly competitive with offerings from
Zimbra in this area.
Integration points between Exchange Server
and Office SharePoint Server will continue to