Software facilitates collaboration and messaging.
Press Release Summary:
Zimbra Collaboration Suite v3.1 includes module in AJAX-based administrator interface that provides comprehensive visibility and management of messages in ZCS message queues. Administrators can view queued messages grouped by various sender/receiver criteria, and force queue-level actions from administrator interface. Resource scheduling capabilities allow users to search for and schedule locations such as meeting rooms and resources such as projectors.
Original Press Release:
Zimbra Launches Zimbra Collaboration Suite 3.1
Unveils Innovative New Administration Capabilities Including Advances to the AJAX Administrator Interface, Resource Scheduling, and Zimbra Mobile Beta for Wireless Devices
SAN MATEO, Calif., April 19 / -- Zimbra, a leader in open source, next-generation collaboration and messaging software, today announced the launch of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 3.1. In keeping with Zimbra's commitment to deliver consistently on a solid product line, new features in ZCS 3.1 include a new module in the administrator interface for improved management of message queues and storage, advanced Resource scheduling capabilities, the first public beta of "Zimbra Mobile," and general availability of the ZCS Connector for Outlook.
"With ZCS 3.1, we're continuing to address key pain points for enterprise collaboration: improving overall systems administration, enabling efficient resource scheduling, and bringing a better collaboration experience to users of Microsoft Outlook and wireless devices. We spend a lot of time talking to systems administrators, so we wanted to deliver some cool and sexy new administrative features just for them," said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and CEO. "Personally, I know that I couldn't survive without my Treo, so we're also thrilled to launch the public beta of Zimbra Mobile for all my fellow handheld addicts."
New Administration Features
ZCS 3.1 includes a new module in the AJAX-based administrator interface that provides comprehensive visibility and management of messages in the ZCS message queues. Administrators can view queued messages grouped by various sender/receiver criteria, providing visibility into potential spam activity or other security breaches, and can force queue-level actions on messages or groups of messages directly from the administrator interface.
ZCS 3.1 also provides a new "Mailbox Quota" view of users sortable by total mailbox size or percentage of quota consumed. This enables administrators to monitor which users on each ZCS server are consuming the most storage or approaching their quota limits.
"Zimbra has truly delivered in bringing innovation to the end user and administrator," said Satish Movva, vice president and CIO of Interim HealthCare. "When we evaluated Zimbra we were excited about the capabilities of the AJAX client and Zimlets, but at the end of the day it was the powerful administrative features that won us over."
These new ZCS 3.1 administrative capabilities complement existing ZCS administrator benefits such as native hierarchical storage management; online backup and recovery of a mailbox or a server; single-copy message storage; migration tools for Microsoft Exchange, Outlook and IMAP; and native anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities.
Resource Scheduling
ZCS 3.1 builds on Zimbra's advanced AJAX-based calendaring features with new Resource scheduling capabilities, which allow users to search for and schedule Locations (such as meeting rooms) and Resources (such as projectors). Meeting organizers can intelligently match Locations and Resources to meetings by searching on attributes such as building, floor, and capacity, and can also view consolidated Free/Busy schedules for Locations, Resources, and Attendees -- simplifying the overall scheduling process.
Additionally, when an appointment with a Location or Resource is requested, the Location or Resource will automatically accept or decline the request based on availability. If there is a conflict, the auto-response will include the organizer of the conflicting meeting without disclosing any potentially private meeting details, enabling the requester to follow up with the organizer of the conflict if desired.
Resource scheduling in ZCS 3.1 is also fully compatible with Outlook, for both meeting organizers and invitation recipients using Outlook as their email client.
Introducing "Zimbra Mobile" Public Beta
ZCS 3.1 includes the first public beta of "Zimbra Mobile", Zimbra's technology for over-the-air synchronization between the ZCS server and popular handheld wireless devices. With ZCS 3.1, Zimbra Mobile enables calendar sync for the Treo 650, and calendar/contacts sync for the Treo 700w and other devices running the Windows Mobile 5 operating system. In addition, Zimbra Mobile functions without requiring users to download new software to their devices, and without the need for mobility middleware software. ZCS already enables over-the-air syncing of email using IMAP and is available in the Zimbra Network Edition.
General Availability of the ZCS Connector for Outlook
With ZCS 3.1, Zimbra announces general availability (GA) of the ZCS Connector for Outlook in the Zimbra Network Edition, a MAPI-based connector that enables the use of Microsoft Outlook with the ZCS server. In addition, ZCS 3.1 adds support for Outlook archiving, enabling Outlook users to manage server-side quotas effectively by archiving data into a local Outlook data store. More detailed information about the use of Outlook with the ZCS can be found in the following whitepaper: zimbra.com/pdf/Zimbra%20Microsoft%20Outlook%20and%20the%20Zimbra%20 Collaboration%20Suite.pdf .
Pricing and Availability
The ZCS 3.1 Open Source Edition is free, and the commercially-supported Network Edition is available for $28/mailbox/year, which includes full product support as well as software subscriptions to new releases, updates and patches. Both editions can be downloaded at www.zimbra.com/ . Users can discuss topics related to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite and provide feedback at www.zimbra.com/forums/ . A comprehensive feature list is available at www.zimbra.com/pdf/Zimbra%20Collaboration%20Suite%20Feature%20List.pdf
About Zimbra:
Zimbra dramatically improves the messaging and collaboration experience for administrators and users. Zimbra's goal is to achieve this by investing in innovation, open source, and compatibility with existing applications and systems. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite supports Windows, Apple, and Linux platforms and works with Microsoft Outlook as well as other PC and mobile clients. Additionally, Zimbra provides an AJAX browser based client that delivers rich, secure, anytime access for anyone within the enterprise. More information and software downloads are available at www.zimbra.com.
