Mail server to use in MS Exchange place, and will it...
 

Good day friends,

I am busy with a project, and I wish for you to help me if you can (which I believe you can).

I want to use open exchange in MS Exchange's place. My question is, will MS Outlook look work on to open exchange/Kolab?

Secondly, if I run linux through Virtual Box, with a second network card installed, will this work to run the exchange server from?

The whole purpose here is to not only do this in a cheaper way, but also to convince my company to invest more into Linux and open source software in the future as the company will grow a bit over the next few months.

Thanks a lot for those who will respond.

Open exchange has an outlook connector.

Suse version of open exchange has an outloook connector iSLOX

Scalix has an outlook connector for their product

Zimbra Outlook Connector and Apple iSync Connector are bundled with your ZCS Network Edition Professional Server.



There is an Open Exchange VMWARE Image available for download from VMWARE's virtual appliance site.

There is a Zimbra VMWARE Image available for download from VMWARE's virtual appliance site.

although I don't know if I would run a large production mail install in a virtual machine. it can get pretty resource intensive when you are doing AV scans, and anti-spam functions on the server..



The only other info I can provide is that to get the outlook connector for Zimbra you MUST use their commercial version which will cost you. although it will cost a LOT less than MS Exchange licensing. I did a post a couple days ago with mail server pricing MS Exchange vs. Zimbra vs. Apple XServe.. afaik Apple does not yet have an outlook connector, although outlook does support apples iCal.

Thank you for the reply friend.

The server on which this virtual machine will run is quite strong, 2GB ram and a 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo 4MB cache. I will run the virtual part on a seperate hdd. Right now we do not have that much of a mail traffic going on, but when it will expand, I want to run a dedicated Linux server.

This will be more a test run before going more dedicated.

Why set it all up in a virtual machine when the plan is to go live - you'll just double your work! Also if your showcasing it then give it the best operating conditions you can...ie no virtual server ;)

Pffffffffffffft

Well, after trying it, I agree with you, I will get a linux box for the exchange server. Thanks for the help!!!

Isn't that a Open Exchange software a fee-per-seat product?

It doesn't seem like it would be much cheaper for total solution to run Microsoft's Small Business Server.

Now don't get the wrong idea, I'm not advocating a MS solution... but you should run the numbers both ways (license + deployment costs) for when someone at your office tries to defeat your project in the finance department.