exchange alternative

crappybob

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Is anyone here using a mail server with shared contacts/calendaring that is not exchange?

I have been looking at Kerio Pro and Alt-n's Mdaemen mailserver. They both look pretty good, I was just wondering if anyone around here had used them.

Thanks
 
Icewarp has it, but it's a imap server like the ones your listed ... imap sucks

Other then costs, why not exchange?
 
If not for cost, it would be exchange, I like exchange but we simply can't afford it now. For the number of users we have Kerio or MDaemon will run around 5000 to 6000 bucks while exchange would cost almost 20,000 to put in.
 
Oracle Collaboration Suite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Collaboration_Suite

With just about any solution you can use LDAP address books.

using IMAP or POP3 is just something that you're going to have to do if you're not using exchange. and there are POP3 servers and IMAP servers available for free.

and your LDAP server can be something like Linux or Solaris which can both be downloaded and used for free.

Client software can be quite easily obtained for free.

Calendaring is a bit different. I don't think that there are any cheap/free solutions out there that integrate with email. there are however plenty of free/cheap web calendaring solutions. that for a lot of people work well, if not better than exchange calendars, (they can be installed on free platforms, easily accessible externally, not client dependant etc).

basically you can get all the 'features' that are available in exchange for free with a few tools. and you can put them on free platforms too.

the real costs that come with these solutions are the support costs.

I mean take address books, if you install an LDAP server in your organisation, how much experience do you or the technical staff have with this? if you're planning to put this on an open solaris platform then how much Unix expertise have you got available?
 
If you want Exchange but can't afford its large initial investment, think about hosted exchange.
 
I really like the kerio solution, there are also several hosted kerio providers. We use www.keriomailhosting.com and are quite happy with their service.

They set us up a couple of demo accounts, and worked with us through the setup, although the setup was pretty easy. Then we decided to make the switch.

I think www.keriomailhosting.com is also a reseller of the Kerio Mail Server.
 
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