Virtualization specialist VMware announced the launch of the Zimbra
Collaboration Suite Appliance, an e-mail and collaboration solution
delivered as a virtual appliance and designed to run on the VMware
vSphere platform. In addition, VMware announced that Zimbra, which it
acquired in February 2010, is now fully integrated within VMware, and
all Zimbra products are currently available via VMware's sales and
channel partner ecosystem. Zimbra customers are also now supported by
VMware's Global Support Services, the company noted.
Businesses can run the Zimbra appliance either within their data
centers, or via one of VMware's more than 2,000 VMware vCloud partners
who host the application as a service. The appliance also provides a
personal and team cloud for the user, administrator and data center.
In addition, the application features integrated security technologies
including a firewall, antivirus and anti-spam solutions. The Zimbra
Collaboration Suite Appliance is currently available starting at USD
$625/25 mailboxes for a perpetual license.
Zimbra E-mail and Collaboration Server is an e-mail and collaboration
solution that includes e-mail, contacts/address book, calendaring,
document management, file sharing, tasks, and search and indexing,
while the Advanced Web Client is a multiple-browser, multiple-platform
Web-client with an AJAX interface. Zimbra Mobile is a native
"over-the-air" synchronization to Apple’s iPhone, Windows, Palm and
Symbian OS smartphones with customizable mobile security policies
including remote device wipe, PINs and device management features on
user accounts.
Other features include an Appliance Migration Wizard to help businesses
migrate from Microsoft Exchange and Domino environments, a
task-oriented, Web-based administration console, an integrated operating
system and application stack, combined with firewall, antivirus and
anti-spam filtering, software and security updates that are combined
into a single lifecycle management policy, and open formats to reduce
the cost and complexity of provisioning and lifecycle management.
"We're excited about the opportunity to provide VMware customers
worldwide with Zimbra's best-in-class e-mail and collaboration solution
paired with VMware vSphere's leading virtualization platform," said
Zimbra general manager Jim Morrisroe. "The Collaboration Suite
Appliance delivers customers secure e-mail with the assurance that their
data is protected on our VMware vSphere virtualization platform, and a
collaboration solution that they can fully deploy in a matter of
minutes -- literally going from install to inbox in less than 10
minutes."
Virtualization 
