VMworld 2010 – The New Zimbra

I’ve written about Zimbra before. Actually, we here at vmguru.nl use Zimbra for all our email and collaboration. So, today we were invited to join the Zimbra Breakfast Meeting at the Scandic Hotel in Copenhagen.

Zimbra, for the ones who don’t know what it does, is a collaboration suite. It’s the open source exchange alternative. Well, it’s getting more than an alternative. It’s getting competitive in a rapid pace. According to Zimbra, it’s the next-generation Exchange.

A quick overview of the Zimbra features:

• – Full email, addressbook, calendaring and task features
• – Unique full featured web interface with unified browser support (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome)
• – Full mobile support: blackberry, android, iphone, windows mobile clients
• – AD support and MS Exchange interoperability
• – Open Framework for 3rd party extensions (ZimLets)
• – Easily scalable (from 10 to 10.000.000 mailboxes)

So, that’s an overview of the current functionality of Zimbra. For more details, check out the zimbra site. However, by the end of 2010, Zimbra 7 will be released upon the crowds. So, what’s new in Zimbra 7? Here’s the list of features:

• Better integration with WebE, Twiter, linkedin
• New Schedule View with time availability view
• New Schedule Wizard
• Calendar View in the meeting request
• Deleted Items Recovery for the end user
• Briefcase with versioning and preview function
• Briefcase with document checkin/checkout
• Better task view panel: preview pane and ability to set reminders
• Zimbra mobile: new iPad client
• Native full activesync support
• Integration with vSphere Heartbeat of critical Zimbra Services
• Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO):
  • Sync signatures
  • Autocheck for updates
  • Support for Outlook 2010 64bit

So, in short, it’s getting even better. Below you will find the slides of the Zimbra presentation.