GOC

Zimbra, a Yahoo! company, announced the release of Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 5.0, an open source, next-generation messaging and collaboration software. The suite was built with the belief that existing email and calendaring solutions can be broken and the end result would be an innovative experience for end-users and system administrators allowing them to more easily create, share, and publish documents.

 

Zimbra is a provider of collaboration software for universities, businesses, and service providers. Yahoo! Inc. is an Internet brand, which focuses on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences.

 

ZCS 5.0 has been developed with hundreds of enhancements that expand Zimbra’s access across desktops and devices and setting a standard for Web-based productivity in a business environment. This shows Yahoo!’s (News - Alert) dedication to provide its user’s with world-class e-mail and collaboration services.

 

Zimbra’s expansive partner network, along with Yahoo!’s worldwide reach, has made way for the software to reach key audiences such as universities, ISPs and small businesses.

 

“We are proud of our achievements in ZCS 5.0 and appreciate the passionate feedback from the 13,500 open source community members and customers that made our most significant release to date a huge success,” said Satish Dharmaraj, Yahoo! vice president and Zimbra co-founder. “Together, we have built one of the world’s premier e-mail and collaboration products, and with Yahoo!’s support, are continuing to innovate at a more rapid pace.”

 

ZCS 5.0 extends Zimbra’s Anywhere Access on the desktop and also supports Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook 2007, virtually on any device. It also supports BlackBerry Enterprise Server, J2ME-enabled handsets such as the Motorola RAZR, and a new version of ZCS for mobile Web browsers.

 

New features in Zimbra AJAX Web client include instant messaging, briefcase, tasks applications and Zimbra Desktop, an offline-capable Web 2.0 collaboration experience.

 

“Zimbra has the broadest device and desktop support options of any e-mail and collaboration solution, plus advanced Web 2.0 features in the browser,” said Dervilla Mullan, head of Eircom Online, Eircom. “For Eircom, its superior features match our consumer and small business customers’ needs and support our monetization model better than any alternative we evaluated.”

 

David Smith, group technical director, Gyro International, added, “Support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is a huge advantage for Zimbra. From a business standpoint, it’s the last box to check in a product evaluation, and Zimbra is the only open platform that offers it.”

 

ZCS 5.0 has feature where native e-mail, contacts, calendar, and task synchronizations from Zimbra can be put to Outlook 2007. Zimbra ZCS 5.0 can be accessed on all BlackBerry handsets, J2ME enabled devices, or any mobile Web browser, including the Apple iPhone (News - Alert).

 

Zimbra’s Tasks can mange stuffs like monitoring start and due dates, priority, progress, and completion of tasks. A Web-based Instant Messaging is also built directly into ZCS 5.0, which supports multiple conversations and group chats.

 

With the help of Zimbra Briefcase, users can conveniently store any file from an e-mail instead of storing as an e-mail attachment. The Briefcase folders can be easily shared with others, with both read-only and full access options.

 

With Zimbra Desktop, whether working online or offline, Zimbra users and users of existing POP and IMAP e-mail servers can experience AJAX. End users have a choice of fifteen fully certified languages in ZCS 5.0.

 

ZCS 5.0 also features new Zimlets, which leverages on Yahoo! properties such as Flickr, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Search. Later, Zimbra has plans to include its innovative technologies into properties including Yahoo! Mail and Calendar.    

 

“As CEO Jerry Yang (News - Alert) previewed at CES, the future of Yahoo! Mail is a smarter, more open e-mail experience for all of our users,” said Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president, communications and communities, Yahoo!. “We will leverage Zimlet-like technology that currently exists in Zimbra’s offering to help advance our goal of creating a smarter inbox that will delight hundreds of millions of Yahoo! Mail users worldwide.”

 

With Zimbra’s innovative, open technologies, Yahoo! can offer its users a more dynamic Web 2.0 experience. This is known to be an important advancement of Yahoo!’s strategy, to become the starting point for the most consumers on the Web.

 

Some of the new customers of Zimbra are Red Hat (News - Alert), Texas A&M University, Eircom, Brandeis University, Hyatt Legal Plans, University of Guelph, Sutton Group Realty Services, Franklin and Marshall College, Kuwait University, and Dai Nippon Printing

There are approximately 13,500 active members in the Zimbra development community.

ZCS 5.0 Open Source Edition is available for free. The commercially supported ZCS Network Edition includes product support as well as software subscriptions to new releases, updates and patches.

 

The Zimbra server is available for Linux, Mac OS X, appliances, and virtualization platforms. The Zimbra Web 2.0 Ajax client runs on Firefox, Safari, and IE, and features easy integration/mash-ups of Web portals, business applications, and VoIP using Web services.

 

Zimbra’s rich AJAX interface is available online or offline, in order to improve the collaboration experience. Zimbra is available on-premise or on-demand through an extensive hosted partner program.