Workgroup and Messaging Case Studies

With confidence in Open Source Software increasing amongst IT purchasers, its use for messaging and workgroup applications has become an important topic. Amongst numerous proprietary solutions in this area amongst the best known are Microsoft Exchange Server, Novell Groupwise and IBM Lotus/Domino. This is a lucrative area for products and as a consequence hot competition has sprung up to provide either fully Open Source solutions or proprietary solutions based on an Open Source platform (almost always Linux).

It's interesting to note that in this area, at least, most solutions incorporate notions of paid-for licensing; the common Open Source free-of-charge ethos is much less obvious. Experiences of talking to real customers indicates that what they want is a solution that is reliable, is not subject to onerous licensing costs and has a low vendor lock-in component.

Practical solutions that are most commonly considered are listed below. The list is not and will not be comprehensive since that would be impossible to track in a fast-moving market; nonetheless some attempts will be made to keep it up to date. Some are almost entirely comprised of proprietary software, others are notably built from components which are themselves Open Source but integrated and bundled in a licensed package. Popular Open Source components for use in this area are Postfix (email exchanger), Cyrus (mailbox server) and Open LDAP (directory services). As usual, instead of one monolith the Open Source approach is to merge together a number of components all of which do just one job.

As the profile of OSS-related workgroup and messaging solutions grows, reviews are starting to appear contrasting the various options. The principal interest at present seems to be in replacements to Microsoft's Exchange Server. There is a spectrum of compatibility available, ranging from near-transparent through to much less so. A sticking-point is in the extended MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) services that are used to provide seamless integration with the Microsoft Outlook client; these provide 'native mode' connection to the calendaring and scheduling facilities. Typically all of the solutions provide those services in one form or another but not necessarily in a way that Outlook users can continue to use without changing the way that they use them (the goal of seamlessness).

Examples of Workgroup and Messaging Solutions

• SuSE Linux Open Exchange Server
• Stalker CommuniGate
• Bynari Insight Server
• Easygate Workgroup
• Samsung Contact

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