Zarafa Email as an Outlook Alternative : Familiar Features at Half the Price

why microsoft exchange no longer has a lock on business email

If you need a hosted email solution, perhaps you’re afraid of one that doesn’t use the overly familiar Outlook. But what if one existed that had all the same features of Outlook for half the price? Zarafa email is that alternative to Outlook you should consider for more than just saving money. It’s our email hosting solution here at AE Technology Group and something you should consider seriously if you fear losing control of your emails. When you’re on your own server, the risk goes up tremendously in losing emails or not having proper security against viruses and phishing scams.exchange-zarafa-email

We decided to use Zarafa as our main email hosting solution for a variety of reasons. The cost savings are tremendous, though it also has a state-of-the-art infrastructure. You’re going to have a lot more flexibility and stability here than you get with Outlook, which is essential when you need to prevent downtime at all costs.

It’s the scalability you’ll also appreciate for the times when your business inevitably grows beyond your expectations. In fact, it’s everything you expect from Outlook, right on down to being tangentially related to one another.

How Similar is Zarafa to Outlook?

Without violating any trademarks, Zarafa has all of the same features Outlook has. This includes basic things that can’t be trademarked like using an address book and placing events in a daily calendar for easy reference. You also have public folders that many email users appreciate using on Outlook. Through a special plug-in, Zarafa can even hook up with Outlook if necessary.

Even better, you can maintain that look and feel when using it on mobile devices. We know more and more companies are wanting to manage their emails through mobile, and we can easily accommodate you with easy accessibility.

It’s the lack of a learning curve you’ll appreciate more than anything. Companies used to using Outlook remember how steep the learning curve was when first using it in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange. Zarafa’s similarity to Outlook will help save you time right away in your staff learning something new. At the same time, you’ll have more security than even Outlook has thanks to a Linux server saving all your emails to a secure database for easy retrieval.

Contact us here at AE Technology Group to find out more about our email hosting solution and about Zarafa. It’s a name that might not sound familiar now, though you’ll be speaking it a lot more as word spreads it bests Microsoft.// <![CDATA[
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Hosted Email Solutions Through Open Source Solutions

hosted email solutions through open source solutions

It used to be where companies, especially enterprise-level ones, would mainly use proprietary email software such as Microsoft Exchange Server.
Open Source
Such software was useful for email, yet because it was proprietary, it had limited ability in being customizable, easy to use, and affordable.

Yet in recent years, an increasing variety of email software has sprung up whereby proprietary software no longer has a grip on much of the market for email software.  Enter open source email software.

Open source email, unlike its proprietary counterpart, has increased capacity for customizing its features, operating from a user-friendly interface, and being more affordable through free or low-priced software licensing via its distributors.

All in all, open source email offers a company the opportunity to enhance its communications productivity, while doing so at a lower cost.

ZarafaOne example of open source email is Zarafa.  Zarafa stands out from proprietary and other open source email platforms in that it is the only known platform that combines open, compatible, and enterprise collaboration.

Zarafa offers quite a bit of customization based on integration with Linux operating systems (which also enhances its stability and security), a user-friendly interface akin to Microsoft Outlook, and a lower price than Microsoft Exchange Server.  And like many email platforms geared towards business, it comes with collaboration features such as a multiuser calendar and task lists.

Zarafa can provide a Web feel via web access from any mobile device and on all ActiveSync compatible mobile devices and Blackberry.  Zarafa may be offered as a a hosted email solution, instead of in-house on one’s own computer servers.

Zarafa is offered through AE Technology Group, which is a Zarafa Certified Partner.  A business can try Zarafa before buying it, as Zarafa comes in a free 25-user trial.

Check out more information regarding hosted email solutions, or contact us.

Zarafa Hosted EMail Solution: All the Benefits of MS Exchange at Half the Cost

zarafa hosted email solution all the benefits of ms exchange at half the cost

hosted-emailCloud computing has changed the way businesses set up and run their IT services and e-mail solutions are no exception. Running a traditional MS Exchange server in-house means an investment in hardware and software which can approach $10,000, plus the annual cost of an in-house engineer to maintain, update, patch and back up the servers. A second option is the hosted email solution which requires no up-front investments yet provides stable Linux server platforms, with full MS Exchange features, at half the cost.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of a hosted email solution versus an In-House solution:

  • Hosted e-mail requires no equipment costs.In-house requires hardware and software upfront costs of several thousand dollars.
  • Hosted e-mail requires no additional staff.In-house requires a dedicated engineer to maintain the server.
  • Hosted e-mail requires no software or hardware upgrade costs, it’s all absorbed by the host.In-house requires constant software and hardware costs in order to have support access.
  • Hosted e-mail allows you to work anywhere, any time, on any device.In-house limits you to working in your office computer as well as some limited OWA accessibility.
  • Hosted e-mail allows you to work off line and it will sync when an internet signal is available.In-house has some off line connectivity in the office, none off site.
  • Hosted e-mail is completely maintained by the host, including patches, upgrades and backups.In-house servers must be patched and upgraded on weekends, backups performed as desired.

An alternate MS Exchange / Outlook solution requires finding a reliable yet fully compatible software solution with a look and feel interface which will not detract from productivity. The feature set should be as complete as the MS Exchange solution and the hardware / software platform should be robust and well documented. Zarafa fill all of these requirements and a great deal more.

Zarafa is an open source e-mail and collaboration service. It’s interface is almost identical to MS Outlook, making company transitions very smooth since the software requires almost no learning curve (compared to Outlook). Zarafa provides the same feature set as MS Outlook, including calendar, e-mail and contacts sharing. Reliability is provided by Linux and MySQL, and client ease of use and portability is provided by an Ajax web application.

Benefits of Zarafa e-mail and collaboration service:

  • Open source platform means substantial cost reduction.
  • Linux servers mean industry standard stability.
  • MySQL server for reliable and secure data storage.
  • No learning curve, interface almost identical to MS Outlook.
  • AJAX based web app, full mobile device support and ease of use.
  • Remote access via SSL.

Summary: With today’s cloud based technology you are no longer limited to in-house servers to meet your e-mail needs. Hosted email solutions such as Zarafa offer all the features of MS Exchange with the reliability of known platforms such as Linux and MySQL. As a bonus, cost reductions of over 50% make Zarafa a great choice for companies large or small. Contact us and we’ll be happy to implement a free 25 user trial so you can see the power of Zarafa hosted email solutions for yourself.

Getting Ahead with a Hosted Email Solution

getting ahead with a hosted email solution

email
Email hosting is one of the most valuable and important resource these days, which operates email servers. There is an increase in the demand for email services because of the large number of people sending as well as receiving emails daily. Getting a hosted email solution is seen to be an important and attractive option to many companies. This is because it is one of the ways of getting new customers.

Email hosting means that the hosting company performs all the email functions for its clients. Such functions include basic functions such as sending and receiving email messages as well as complex functions such as global searching and database processing. Once a company agrees to provide a hosted email solution to its clients, it must also agree to maintain the privacy as well as the security of the client’s email accounts. The servers on which the email accounts of the clients are stored need to be reliable.

According to PCWorld, hosted email solutions provide you with extra features for your email, which are going to give your business a great boost. Such features can include IMAP support, which ensures that you can download offline email client. In addition, you have the chance of getting additional cloud storage for your email messages and get support for you custom email addresses. With email hosting services, you have access to collaboration tools that will integrate with email.

Email hosting offers premium email, which is usually at a cost compared to the free webmail or email that is advertisement supported. These services are offered at low costs. Small and medium sized companies require hosted email solutions to help them get ahead in their business. It is possible for a business to get email hosting solutions that are specific to their needs to make sure that the solutions work effectively.

Small businesses are advised to give their businesses a chance to grow before paying for any hosted email solution. This ensures that they get to pay for the email hosting services once they have several employees and are in need of the different types of features such as collaboration tools and shared calendars, which come with email hosting. This is because transition from one email hosting solution to another can be hard once your business experiences rapid growth. Contact us for more information on email hosting and to get the email hosting solutions that will suit your business best.