Exchange vs Zimbra?

IceDigger

IceDigger

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Looking for an email solution for work between desktop app sync to phone sync to home app.

Goal, to sync email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. All very important, none can be left out.

It looks like the only solution is either Exchange or Zimbra.

Since I don't have the know how to set this up myself I am looking at a hosted solution.
 
IceDigger said:
Looking for an email solution for work between desktop app sync to phone sync to home app.

Goal, to sync email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. All very important, none can be left out.

It looks like the only solution is either Exchange or Zimbra.

Since I don't have the know how to set this up myself I am looking at a hosted solution.
Click to expand...

Office 365 ?
 
yea, if you're going hosted, you may as well go office 365 or google apps...


i've deployed a lot of google apps and i'm used to it, so i'd say go w/ that... but some people would prefer the microsoft solution...
 
It's a tough call really... I've done some research for both and really it comes down to price... I've always wanted to deploy Zimbra instead of Exchange but never have had the opportunity.
 
I have been using Zimbra for 4 + years. Currently running version 7.2. Excellent product and I highly recommend it.

Research and discover how Zimlets, Briefcase, Antivirus, Spam Control, In compressed file (zip files) Antivirus and Zimbra's Advanced Search Features make Zimbra a better product then MS Exchange hands down.

Also desktop client is free and works on linux, windows or on mac (tested this I can verify).

Tested all kinds of clients on Android Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwhich and they worked great though I do not like Roadsync. Roadsync will work but it is an odd program that has odd issues.

Tested on Apple iphone 3, 4 and 4s and Zimbra worked great.

My Setup is Zimbra - OSE + Zpush using Zimbra Backend if you choose a hosted solution it will be similar
 
He answered the OP's question with datasheet bullet points...

My direct experience with Zimbra? just initial research when I was looking for a replacement for Groupwise. Ended up with Exchange. Zimbra was lacking in most areas, most notably: smartphone integration, scalable deployments and full Outlook integration. What about third party message integration?

But since the OP has said a hosted solution, Office 365 or maybe Intermedia. Just be careful about group shared contacts and calendars. Those can be tricky with hosted solutions.
 
All the real estates out here use Zimbra they all hate it.

Exchange all the way. Outlook > *
 
Just signed up for a 30 day trial zimbra hosted account and loving it so far.

It works very well and was EASY to setup. Loving the Zimbra desktop software.
 
I run zimbra for my own personal email and have no issues with it. Only thing that was kind of a pain in the ass was generating a new self-signed certificate.

The web access interface is much, much, much better than any form of OWA but I've never used the desktop program.
 
I run Zimbra server off an old laptop and it works great. The self-signed cert thing is a pain, but that's the only problem I've had. The price for the Open Source version is right too.
 
Zimbra is very scalable. Zimbra integrates well with smartphones. Zimbra uses LDAP and because of this it integrates with most private messaging systems. If your wondering if it integrates with public messaging systems it does that as well. As for integration with Outlook it does this very well, but why use Outlook? Outlook is way to expensive and in this day and age and especially with the economy the way it is why bother with the overhead.

Other Zimlets I recommend are ...

Calendar Schedular
http://gallery.zimbra.com/type/zimlet/calendar-scheduler

Short URL for Briefcase
http://gallery.zimbra.com/type/zimlet/short-url-briefcase
 
Who buys JUST outlook? It comes with like every version of office.

Also you realize that company representatives are supposed to identify themselves on these forums right?
 
I just got it to sync like exchange on my blackberry playbook, except for the tasks.
 
I use Zimbra, we've had it at work for about 3 years, no big problems. At the time Exchange was not really an option as some users had up to 15GB of email and over a gigabyte was common...

But we are not a MS friendly company anyway, running LDAP instead of AD etc.
 
I am not a rep for VMware and its product Zimbra. I just like it cause its purdy and does what I need it to do and want it to do.

:D
 
I think it's the experience of most people on these forums that real customers don't say things like "I am not a rep for VMware and its product Zimbra", nor do they only respond to threads for one particular product, answer questions not asked, and respond mostly with bullet points from advertisements.
 
Zimbra fucking sucks. I worked in an Exchange environment for 10 years and am now in a Zimbra 7.2 environment and its like going back to the stone ages. Zimbra lacks so many basic features when it comes to collaboration support for the end-user, or if it can implement them, its done in such a backwards way its not even worth your time. Every Zimbra patch fixes 10 things and breaks 50 more. One of the last patches broke the push ability of zimbra to Outlook. Real handy there.

I would highly recommend either going with Exchange if the $$ is there, or a hosted solution such as Office 365. especially if ou are going to have Windows/outlook/iphone/droid users.

I LOVE vmware but i despise Zimbra with a passion. We have over 5000 users on the system, tied in with ldap/AD and the lack of central administration as you can have with Exchange is just one extra aspect that is really annoying. There is absolutely not a single thing Zimbra does better than Exchange. When it comes to email systems, there is no peer to Exchange, thats the bottom line.
 
marley1 said:
All the real estates out here use Zimbra they all hate it.

Exchange all the way. Outlook > *
Click to expand...

hrm, i just saw your post after my rant. And i happen to work for a mortgage company, i wonder....
lol
 
I would think Zimbra may work for many, but the sheer power and options of Exchange there has yet to be an equal product like it.. it is like people saying gimp is better than photoshop to me, if you think gimp is better, you have never truly "used" photoshop beyond the basics.
 
How about the NATIVE android exchange client? Forget about Roadsync and all the 3rd party stuff, in my eyes they don't exsist.

It is good to hear that Zimbra was acquired by VMWare. Look at the now abandoned Scalix product which when it was under active development could have been considered a viable competitor.
 
Zimbra has an native app for android .. not sure if it will work for the Blackberry OS yet (pending RIM approval) but maybe.

Download it here ... works good and will sync tasks and the briefcase. Thats gotta make ya happy.

http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vza

Every Zimbra patch fixes 10 things and breaks 50 more. One of the last patches broke the push ability of zimbra to Outlook. Real handy there.
Click to expand...

Why would anyone ever deploy a patch to a production environment? Tee hee

There are always haters I on the other hand have not had the issues of the haters.
 
Does exchange still if strict recommendations on max mailbox size? Does it work well with open-ldap or requires AD?
 
lsikstrom said:
Zimbra has an native app for android .. not sure if it will work for the Blackberry OS yet (pending RIM approval) but maybe.

Download it here ... works good and will sync tasks and the briefcase. Thats gotta make ya happy.

http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vza



Why would anyone ever deploy a patch to a production environment? Tee hee

There are always haters I on the other hand have not had the issues of the haters.
Click to expand...


Who said it was deployed to prod? Just seems like you can NEVER deploy zimbra patches because they all break more shit.

Anyway, I'm learning to live with Zimbra, but like i said, coming from a 2007/2010 Exchange environment, I have been left far from impressed. I just dont think Zimbra is ready for primetime in very large enterprises. Once you outgrow its capabilities, you are left stuck with trying to workaround everything, when Exchange at that point would already have the capabilities required.



Nate7311 said:
Exchange is designed for integration with AD environments only.
Click to expand...


So about 99% of all Enterprises out there. :)
 
Zimbra here, and it's just not working out for us. Had Communigate before, which worked great but didn't really support anything advanced so we switched.

So many things just half work correctly, and the exchange emulation is pretty much just that. We deal daily with so many "well just don't do that and it'll be fine" bugs that at this point exchange is almost looking good.

Maybe the new 8.x release will suck less, hopefully.
 
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