zimbra as an exchange replacement

[CyberNerd]

We currently have a messed up system with 3 email servers - one BSD for students - one Windows Exchange for staff and a linux email relay for AV/spam filters. It would be nice to pull it all together into one system and I'd like to propose this to the boss.I just installed /configured zimbra. Its seems very nice and was simple to set up. Luckily I am not responsible for our exchange 2000 server (it is problematic, to put it nicely) and I'm not really familiar of all the benefits of running exchange.
I've compiled a quick list of things that will be easy to do in Zimbra and I'd like some comments please - my first impressions are that it has all the functionality and scalability of exchange and some significant benefits, but like I say - i'm not an exchange guru so I'd like some input because I might be totally off the mark with this. Also anyone actually use Zimbra?

[hr]
Integration considerations of Zimbra:

shared calendars
global address list from ldap
student email accounts from ldap
Active Directory integration
exchange mailbox migration tools
Outlook access from IMAP
Outlook calendar access (commercial plugin required)
mailing list support
Multiplatform standards based - IMAP,POP,SMTP,ical etc mobile phones/tablets etc
web based - firefox,IE (opera,safari in development) - easy deployment
clustering/scalability
[hr]
Benefits of Zimbra over exchange:

more functionality in web client than OWA -AJAX brower based
better integration with web mashups than exchange (zimlets)
reduced storage - stores one copy of message for each user that recieves it
indexes messages as they arrive - fast searching - (atachment indexing in
comercial only)
document store directly onto filesystem, indexed by db (exchange stores files
in db)
scrolling over messages brings up thumbnail of website
hovering over a date within a message launches the calendar -=Right click on a date to schedule a meeting
moving the cursor over a street address in an e-mail message yielded a map from Google
VoIP integration -`mouse'over a phone number for VOiP application
conversion of attachment documents (pdf etc) to HTML for inline viewing
(comercial)
cross reference email with tags (sync with outlook catagories)
Online move, backup and recovery of individual or a group of mailboxes
(comercial)
customizable - zimlets - mouse over lesson to bring up moodle ??
virus scanning (spamassasin)
spam filtering
RSS/Atom feeds
content filtering for student email (postfix)
no 16GB limits
no licensing costs for OSS version

[Geoff]

reduced storage - stores one copy of message for each user that recieves it

Exchange does this.

virus scanning (spamassasin)
spam filtering

Possible with Exchange via 3rd party plugins (but not free).

no 16GB limits

Only if you use HIGHMEM on x86 or swtich to AMD64.

[Alex]

Couple of points

Benefits of Zimbra over exchange:

more functionality in web client than OWA -AJAX brower based

Have you tried the 2k3 version? it's pretty complete. Zimbra does look very nice though.

no 16GB limits

with Exchange 2k3 sp2, the limit is 75GB. Still a limit, but it's much more generous.

For simplicity, I'd go for exchange. You can have it up and running in under and hour. If you've got time to fiddle zimbra looks cool.

[CyberNerd]

@Geoff - thanks, I'll take those points off the 'advantages' list

Have you tried the 2k3 version? it's pretty complete. Zimbra does look very nice though

No, I have seen it in action though. I was hoping someone could point out some of the things OWA can do that we wouldn't get with Zimbra -on the face of it Zimbra has more functionality but I might have missed something. -also does OWA 2003 work properly with non-ie browsers?

For simplicity, I'd go for exchange. You can have it up and running in under and hour. If you've got time to fiddle zimbra looks cool.

I had zimbra installed and configured in no time at all and hte configuration is all web-based and is straightfoward (i've no exchange MCP so I can't really compare -but I know we do have more problems with Ex2000 than with our OSS email servers). I guess the real issue would be actually doing the migration (120 staff) whereas I guess an upgrade on exchange would just upgrade.

Also - what sort of licensing would we need to put all students (1650) onto exchange? how much would this cost? and what are the benefits?

[Geoff]

For simplicity, I'd go for exchange. You can have it up and running in under and hour.

Zimbra is a 20min install more or less.

You also might want to evaluate Scalix too.

http://www.scalix.com/

[Alex]

@Geoff - thanks, I'll take those points off the 'advantages' list

Have you tried the 2k3 version? it's pretty complete. Zimbra does look very nice though

No, I have seen it in action though. I was hoping someone could point out some of the things OWA can do that we wouldn't get with Zimbra -on the face of it Zimbra has more functionality but I might have missed something. -also does OWA 2003 work properly with non-ie browsers?

For simplicity, I'd go for exchange. You can have it up and running in under and hour. If you've got time to fiddle zimbra looks cool.

I had zimbra installed and configured in no time at all and hte configuration is all web-based and is straightfoward (i've no exchange MCP so I can't really compare -but I know we do have more problems with Ex2000 than with our OSS email servers). I guess the real issue would be actually doing the migration (120 staff) whereas I guess an upgrade on exchange would just upgrade.

Also - what sort of licensing would we need to put all students (1650) onto exchange? how much would this cost? and what are the benefits?

I can probably let you have a play with my OWA setup, if you promise not to email [ALL] "I pwned Alex he is a n00b etc" . That might give you a better overview than me trying to explain all the nuances.

I tend to assume anything installed on linux is going to take 5 weeks, you'll have to excuse my bias, linux and I dont get on too well (my lack of knowledge, inclination and a bit of bad luck no doubt).

Pricing wise Exchange CALs are £1.25 each last time I checked edu pricing (about a year ago). Do it on a per workstation basis for licensing - works out better in this instance. Exchange was £95 last time I checked.

[CyberNerd]

I can probably let you have a play with my OWA setup, if you promise not to email [ALL] "I pwned Alex he is a n00b etc" Smile. That might give you a better overview than me trying to explain all the nuances.

Thanks Alex, this would be good. I'd like to get a good comparison if its easy enough for you to setup. I promise I'll be good (won't be sending any >75GB attachments lol!)

[Norphy]

Another point re mailstore sizes: The mailstore size limitation is for Exchange Standard only. If you use Exchange Enterprise Edition you're only limited by the amount of space you have on your server. Exchange Ent costs about £215 from Ramesys iirc.

[Alex]

Another point re mailstore sizes: The mailstore size limitation is for Exchange Standard only. If you use Exchange Enterprise Edition you're only limited by the amount of space you have on your server. Exchange Ent costs about £215 from Ramesys iirc.

Education pricing 4tw \o/

[Geoff]

I tend to assume anything installed on linux is going to take 5 weeks, you'll have to excuse my bias, linux and I dont get on too well (my lack of knowledge, inclination and a bit of bad luck no doubt).

Depends if you have inhouse Linux expertise or not. IMHO its something you should seriously look for if your thinking of employing new people. It'll save you buckets of cash.

Also go find your nearest LUG. They've been known install and support Linux based systems in schools for free.

[Alex]

I tend to assume anything installed on linux is going to take 5 weeks, you'll have to excuse my bias, linux and I dont get on too well (my lack of knowledge, inclination and a bit of bad luck no doubt).

Depends if you have inhouse Linux expertise or not. IMHO its something you should seriously look for if your thinking of employing new people. It'll save you buckets of cash.

Also go find your nearest LUG. They've been known install and support Linux based systems in schools for free.

I don't work in education any more

That said, I do have a couple of chaps who specialise in Linux - they tend to deal with our older web servers though.