Opting for Zimbra over Exchange by pricing

[rajeshkodali]

Hi,

I am not sure of the pricing benefit that customers get by opting to Zimbra rather Exchnage. I am confused by the below given doc. Can any one comment.

Price comparison: Zimbra vs. Exchange, from Justin James - Downloads - TechRepublic

[Klug]

This discussion already took place here : Why Zimbra so expensive?

[psgandalf]

Kind of a sad comparison I think. First of all if one should choose to not pay the fee the second year would Zimbra stop working? haven't found any information regarding that. And If I had too work with an old server version it would be Zimbra.... Then suddenly we got a new winner.... Or even better choose the OOS version....

A true comparison would be to have an software assurance to the MS sev+cal +Exchange +cal.
And what about antivirus and antispam software thats another $$$ expence to add.
With a decent backup strategy then we have to add a cost of software with a nother yearly cost.

When it's time to upgrade the systems I bet that the new Linux server and Zimbra server would run quite well on the old hardware. Windows 7 Server with next generation Exchange would probably need a new server. (Although Windows 2008 looks promising in hardware requirement).

With a bad comparison you can claim anything. But look into it and you will probably find that the Zimbra alternative is by far the cheepest one i a long term real world case.

My 5 cents....

//Mike

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by psgandalf

Kind of a sad comparison I think. First of all if one should choose to not pay the fee the second year would Zimbra stop working?

Yes, the Network Edition features would stop working.

Originally Posted by psgandalf

haven't found any information regarding that.

There's a discussion on the forums that covers this subject.

[Mike Scholes]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Yes, the Network Edition features would stop working.

Does that mean the product would continue to work as FOSS without needing to re-install anything? Just one day the network edition extras would just magically disappear?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Mike Scholes

Does that mean the product would continue to work as FOSS without needing to re-install anything? Just one day the network edition extras would just magically disappear?

I guess you didn't read the thread on the subject. You are basically correct but the is an important proviso, you will not be able to add any more users to the system at all - you need to do an 'upgrade' to the OSS version to re-enable the adding of users.

[Mike Scholes]

Thanks for that and no I didn't read that thread. I actually assumed a re-install would be needed so it's all fine with me

[phoenix]

I forgot to mention that the NE version will run for a further thirty-day (I think) before the features revert to OSS functionality - it doesn't just stop when the licence expires.