Traditional Server Versus Virtual Appliance

When applications are virtualized and managed with VMware vSphere and vCenter infrastructure, they become on demand cloud services that can be run on-premises or in a trusted partner’s datacenter. Email and collaboration clouds greatly simplify IT by streamlining deployment, providing instant capacity, integrating business continuity and automatic failover protection.

Zimbra as a Virtual Appliance

Zimbra can be deployed as a software virtual appliance that has all the features of the Zimbra Collaboration Server, letting you instantly deploy your own private email and collaboration cloud on top of vSphere without complex installation and configuration workflows. The appliance is built for virtualization and is integrated with vSphere HA to provide heartbeat monitoring of all critical Zimbra application services ensuring high availability for the overall Zimbra solution.

Benefits of deploying Zimbra as a virtual appliance

Secure, Low Risk and Minimal Maintenance
Out-of-the-box Private Email Cloud

Deploying Zimbra as an appliance gives you an integrated operating system and application stack, complete with security technologies including firewall and antivirus and anti-spam filtering. Maximize IT efficiency and reduce operational costs.

  

A Complete Email and Collaboration Solution in Less than 10 minutes

Instantly deploy, your own private email and collaboration cloud without complex installation and configuration workflows.

Compare Deployment Models: On-Premises vs. Hosted


 Traditional Zimbra Server Zimbra Software Appliance
Deployment/Upgrade
  • Linux server administration required
  • Manual app / OS install and upgrades
  • Linux server administration is NOT required
  • No app/OS install, just deploy virtual machine in less than 10 minutes
  • Automated and configurable app/OS upgrades
Administration
  • Manually add capacity / storage
  • Backups and storage managed through Zimbra
  • Setup HA and manage HA with VMware
  • Manage capacity with VMware
  • Backups, HSM managed by Zimbra or VMware
  • HA / clustering can be managed by VMware or at OS level
Failover and Recovery
  • Manually monitor and restart server
  • VMware automatically monitors and restarts server
  • Instantly move app between servers