| New Scalix e-mail server still targets Microsoft Exchange |
Oct. 05, 2007
Linux calendaring and messaging company Scalix announced Oct. 4 the release of a new version of its flagship e-mail and calendaring program, Scalix 11.2.
While Xandros, Scalix's parent company, has gotten buddy-buddy with Microsoft and even licensed the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol and the Outlook Exchange Transport Protocol, the company is still targeting Microsoft Exchange's customers.
With this new Microsoft technology, Scalix 11.2 administrators can now use their Scalix Mail Servers to synchronize data over wireless networks with Microsoft Exchange Server as well as various e-mail clients, such as Outlook, that use these and other Microsoft protocols.
The commercial editions of Scalix 11.2 now provide full Scalix Connect support for synchronization of devices running Windows Mobile 2005 or Windows Mobile 6 with Microsoft Active Sync 4.5 against Outlook 2003 over USB.
In addition, Scalix 11.2, according to the company, has been tuned for better system performance. The net result is that, without virtualization, a single instance of Scalix can be used to handle not only more users, but multiple groups of users. By this, Scalix claims that Scalix 11.2 is ideal for ASPs (application service providers) to host multiple customers on a single Scalix server without the use of virtualization. They'll do this trick by subdividing a single Scalix installation into multiple independent partitions, each with its own address book and global address list.
In a statement, Andreas Typaldos, Xandros' CEO, said, "We are moving into the service provider space with hosted Exchange-like functionality at a competitive price, with a low footprint and the benefits of administration as derived from a Linux-based solution. As a result users will benefit from high-availability collaboration services using their rich client of choice, including Microsoft Outlook and the AJAX-based Scalix Web Access in Firefox or Internet Explorer."
They key phrase is "competitive price." By targeting ASPs and MSPs (managed service providers) with an inexpensive Linux-based groupware system that can do almost everything Microsoft Exchange does with the same e-mail and organizer clients, Scalix 11.2 poses serious competition for Microsoft.
It also integrates with LDAP directories such as Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, Red Hat/Fedora Directory Server and OpenLDAP. In addition, Scalix 11.2 Enterprise Edition provides Active Directory extensions so Scalix-specific object classes and attributes can be created within Active Directory. With Active Directory Extensions, two new Scalix-specific tabs appear in the ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers interface). This, in turn, means that Exchange administrators can manage all Scalix users and groups using Scalix on Linux but without having to move from the ADUC interface and wizards they already know.
There is also an optional Scalix Migration Tool. This enables administrators to easily migrate user data from Exchange to Enterprise Edition Premium User mailboxes. Again, a major advantage of this for IT is that administrators won't need to change the corporate directory or network topology.
According to the company, the automated tool reliably migrates all mailboxes, messages, public folders, calendars and directory data from your existing mail system. The migration process ensures full mailbox and message fidelity and message reply-ability. And, since Enterprise Edition provides transparent server-to-server co-existence with Exchange, administrators can choose to maintain a mixed environment or migrate on your schedule, not the vendor's.
The one problem child for a Microsoft shop considering moving to Scalix is that this version does not support Outlook 2007. This is being worked on. Scalix expects to have it fixed in the last quarter of 2007 in Scalix 11.3, code-named Mapleleaf. Those using older versions of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express shouldn't see any trouble.
Scalix Enterprise Edition is priced by number of Premium users. Premium users essentially get full Exchange functionality. Standard users are free, and any number can be provisioned. These users get POP/SMTP, Web, and Web-based mobile e-mail and personal calendaring access.
Scalix charges $60 per Premium user with a minimum of 50 users for the Enterprise Edition. After the initial buy, you must pay $12 per year for the Software Subscription Service. A Microsoft Exchange Enterprise Server license runs $3,999 list and has a per-user perpetual license of $67. As is always the case with enterprise software, both companies offer volume discounts, and varying degrees, and prices, of technical support.
Another benefit for a company trying to make money by using Scalix as an Exchange replacement is that Scalix can run both on commercial and community Linuxes. The server is supported not only on the commercial RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Novell's SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and Xandros Server, but also on the free 32- and 64-bit versions of Fedora 7 and openSUSE 10.2 and up.
The commercial and open-source community editions of Scalix 11.2 are available for immediate download. The key difference between the community edition and the commercial ones is that the free community version only supports 25 premium customers. For ASP and MSP licensing details, would-be customers are encouraged to contact Scalix sales.
—Steven J. Vaughan Nichols
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