MS Exchange vs Zimbra mail Server

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fhilliph

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Good day,

My company is looking at changing from Hosted MS Exchange 2013 mail server to the Zimbra Open Source Edition.

My questions for anyone who has maybe done this as well:

1) Can I still use my outlook client?
2) Will the mail be synchronised between mobile devices as was the case with exchange?
3) Is it worth hosting my own server and maintaining it or will a hosted option through an isp be the better route?
4) How stable is the Zimbra platform as we should have minimum downtime on the email side?
5) Any tips & tricks before starting this will be highly appreciated.
6) Any features I'm going to loose with changing from Exchange to Zimbra?

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
 
WHY!!!

Tell your company to stop being so cheap and use Exchange.
We have more issues with compatibility with our clients who use Zimbra than those that use either Cipherwave or Microsoft Hosted Exchange.
 
MS Exchange vs Zimbra

Hi, see below

fhilliph said:
Good day,

My company is looking at changing from Hosted MS Exchange 2013 mail server to the Zimbra Open Source Edition.

My questions for anyone who has maybe done this as well:

1) Can I still use my outlook client?
Yes, IMAP or POP3 with the Open Source Edition
2) Will the mail be synchronised between mobile devices as was the case with exchange?
Yes, IMAP or POP3. There are 3rd part apps that should do the calendar sync
3) Is it worth hosting my own server and maintaining it or will a hosted option through an isp be the better route?
If you have more than average Linux experience, you can host this yourself. You could also get another company to do the install and you look after what you can.
4) How stable is the Zimbra platform as we should have minimum downtime on the email side?
Zimbra is very stable. Minimum downtime of there is a pre-sync of the email done. (This is where another experienced company comes in)
5) Any tips & tricks before starting this will be highly appreciated.
Get outside consultation if you have more than 30 email addresses. The outside company will also lock down the exploitable services, note I've said services and not exploit bugs or holes in the software.
6) Any features I'm going to loose with changing from Exchange to Zimbra?
Zimbra free there are features lost but the advanced webmail could/should cover this. The Zimbra Open Source Edition wont have single mailbox backups. You will need to use a 3rd party script. The paid for version allows for single mailbox restore.

https://www.zimbra.com/partners/cloud-providers/
I worked for the company on the map near Durban

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Click to expand...
 
I have nothing against Zimbra, but why change from Exchange 2013?

If you are going to get an ISP(as you call it) to host it, rather go Hosted Exchange.
 
dont host your own zimbra server if you need to ask these questions. you shouldve created your own server on a virtual machine and checked it out by now..

look at office 365 or mimecast

and yes you will lose some exchange features
 
fhilliph said:
Good day,

My company is looking at changing from Hosted MS Exchange 2013 mail server to the Zimbra Open Source Edition.

My questions for anyone who has maybe done this as well:

1) Can I still use my outlook client?
2) Will the mail be synchronised between mobile devices as was the case with exchange?
3) Is it worth hosting my own server and maintaining it or will a hosted option through an isp be the better route?
4) How stable is the Zimbra platform as we should have minimum downtime on the email side?
5) Any tips & tricks before starting this will be highly appreciated.
6) Any features I'm going to loose with changing from Exchange to Zimbra?

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Most importantly: how many users, as this affects CapEx and we all know that some companies hate spending money on IT, even though without it, the company grinds to a halt.

There is an ROI tipping point when it comes to choosing between Exchange Online and a onsite/server solution. That tipping point is very high however...

Microsoft Exchange Online (Plan 1): R 52 per month per user.

Why do anything else?
 
The number of users is about 250 at this stage but could get larger.

I did look into office 365 before but our finance dept wasn't pleased with the payment options of monthly or yearly fees. Although looking at the responses above I think we may have to revisit Office 365 solution.

Thank you
 
One thing to mention, and this is why I would go back to hosting my own exchange server, you get a 50GB mailbox with O365 and believe me, the users will use all that space. So, when it comes to downloading the mailbox again, when a user gets a new PC, you will only get +-2mbps download speed, which means the download takes forever. There is no way around this, I have tried. Also, OWA is extremely slow.
 
SharkBait said:
One thing to mention, and this is why I would go back to hosting my own exchange server, you get a 50GB mailbox with O365 and believe me, the users will use all that space. So, when it comes to downloading the mailbox again, when a user gets a new PC, you will only get +-2mbps download speed, which means the download takes forever. There is no way around this, I have tried. Also, OWA is extremely slow.
Click to expand...

Both are the exception rather than the norm and not a good enough reason to go through the huge CapEx for buying and maintaining hardware and software/CAL's.

Also it's the uploads that take forever, definitely not the downloads. We have done this a few times as we have about 900 users on Exchange Online throughout our client base.
 
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fhilliph said:
The number of users is about 250 at this stage but could get larger.

I did look into office 365 before but our finance dept wasn't pleased with the payment options of monthly or yearly fees. Although looking at the responses above I think we may have to revisit Office 365 solution.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Maybe show the beancounters a quote to buy the server and all the software and CAL's.
Also quote on full redundancy ( a second server...because god help you if they cannot get an email for 10 minutes) and backup.
Don't forget quotes for UPS's to keep those servers running when there are power failures.
Then replace all the hardware after 5 years...
 
MightyQuin said:
Both are the exception rather than the norm and not a good enough reason to go through the huge CapEx for buying and maintaining hardware and software/CAL's.

Also it's the uploads that take forever, definitely not the downloads. We have done this a few times as we have about 900 users on Exchange Online throughout our client base.
Click to expand...

He says they already have Exchange 2013, so I would assume they have CALs already as well. Also, he did mention it is hosted, so depending on the setup, they don't have to worry about the hardware or power requirements.

Anyway, you must tell me your secret for having fast downloads, because when I download a mailbox on a new pc, the download speed I get is around 2mbps and depending on the size, will take forever to download, as outlook (for some reason) only downloads 3.99GB at a time.

I have google'd this plenty and I am not the only one with this issue and seems to be the norm.
 
Stay away from self hosted exchange. There is very little advantages to running you own.

Go with Office 365 if you can afford it. Its also the easiest way to licence office. Also note that there are many licence options at very low cost, like the F1 and K1 licences.

If you need cheaper, Google G-suite still has a Outlook sync tool on the $5 user.
 
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