Zimbra

tgx · #71 (**permalink**) 01-20-2010, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Scholes

The boss of one of the companies I look after said to me just two days ago when referring to Google Docs that he just doesn't want sensitive business information stored externally to our offices on someone else's servers. This is a valid concern from huge companies to one man bands. So we want to run our own servers and we don't want to pay for 25 users when there might be under five.

This is my observation as well. There are many companies that will not allow data to be stored in the cloud. Some companies will not be able to do so through contractual obligations with other companies to not store data in these environments. While I think 5 users is a bit small for a host your own solution, why would I not sell to you if that's what you want? Just seems silly. I love companies that turn away money...it's not like you can't also sell them a support contract and I highly doubt they would generate proportionately more support tickets. Furthermore many of these small licenses are actually needed by VAR resellers that are trying to sell into these small shops with odd requirements.

samgreco · #72 (**permalink**) 01-21-2010, 08:57 AM

Most of my clients are >10 users. Virtually all of them will not accept the cloud option. Logically it all makes sense. But emotionally they just can't deal with the idea that all of their stuff lives on someone else systems and is not in "their control." I have learned from many years in sales before I went techy, that you can't win an emotional argument.

One of my systems (a little over a year ago) was for a company with 6 employees, one remote. They bought a basic Dell Poweredge with SBS 2003 and an additional 5 user cal. It cost them less than $1200. Hardware and software. 3 external hard drives for around $300 for backup. They haven't spent a cent since on software or hardware. My maintenance has been nill. I would love more billable hours from them, but just hasn't needed it.

I would have suggested Zimbra, but couldn't justify the expense. Since they needed AS, FOSS wouldn't do.

Although I have to say, I now use my iPhone with Zimbra FOSS using IMAP for mail, iCal for calendar. I tried Funambol for Contacts, but it insisted on copying ALL contacts including emailed. Very messy. But otherwise I am quite happy with that solution.

So yes, I would LOVE to see a 5, 10 15 user licensing scheme. I would much rather sell Zimbra, but these days, I'll sell whatever they want.