License costs

[Xanth]

Hi there.
I couldn't find a more appropriate place to ask questions about the licenses...

I support a number of small companies and one large one. All of which are considering migrating from Exchange to something else free/cheap. Zimbra looks like it has all the functions that is required.
BUT. Licenses...
When the smaller companies buy Windows SBS they get exchange bundled in, and then they don't pay any yearly license fees. It's very expensive to begin with but little ongoing costs. (This is not a debate about the support of exchange, so please, lets not get into that)

It seems with Zimbra, there is no initial license fee but rather a yearly fee. Is this yearly fee EVERY year? Or is it just for support for the first year and then they can opt into buying more support for the following years if they choose? If they choose not to relicense for the following years, are they OK to continue using Zimbra?

Cheers.

[y@w]

At the end of the license term you can choose to cross-grade to the open source version. You will lose support as well as the network edition features like mobile syncing, Outlook/iSync syncing, and the backup utility. So.. yes, you do have to keep paying the license fee for the network edition features.

[mmonge]

One question about this:

If after the first year, the client decide not to pay for a one year more, you need to install / migrate the servers to the opensource edition, or just the Network Edition features are desactivated?

[uxbod]

NE features are deactivated.

[phoenix]

In addition, you can't create any new users on the Zimbra server. You'll need to run an 'upgrade' to the open source version. There's a thread around the forums detailing what happens when the licence expires.

[mmonge]

And what happen with the "cluster feature" after license expiration?

For example, you install the Network Edition, with license, in a redhat cluster enviroment of several servers (2 servers for web frontend, 2 servers for storage, etc).

What happen after license expiration?

Loose the Mobility features, search attacments and things like that it's ok. But loose the functionality of the servers in cluster enviroment is not an option...

Anyone have detailed information about how work the zimbra in large cluster installation?

My problem is that for a large installation (10.000 mailboxes) the network edition is probabily more expensive than a Microsoft Exchange solution...

[uxbod]

Originally Posted by mmonge

My problem is that for a large installation (10.000 mailboxes) the network edition is probabily more expensive than a Microsoft Exchange solution...

Remember to add in server license costs, administration etc etc. I think you will find that ZCS is indeed cheaper

[Klug]

Originally Posted by mmonge

2 servers for web frontend, 2 servers for storage, etc

This is not the way ZCS works.
You should check the way ZCS works and have a look at the HA cluster documentation first.

Originally Posted by mmonge

Anyone have detailed information about how work the zimbra in large cluster installation?

There are several threads in the forum.

Originally Posted by mmonge

My problem is that for a large installation (10.000 mailboxes) the network edition is probabily more expensive than a Microsoft Exchange solution...

I doubt it, both on a pure licencing cost but also on the hardware (a lot less servers needed with ZCS and HSM does help too) and administration time (due to the lower number of servers).

[quietas]

Also you can purchase perpetual licensing if you check with a sales rep. My company has no problem paying for year support, but they did not want to pay for software we did not own. I mentioned that and the perpetual licensing option popped up quickly. We still pay for support seperately though.