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VMware Unveils Zimbra 7

VMware Unveils Zimbra 7

Industry’s most flexible, next-generation collaboration platform delivers new enterprise features that increase productivity, openness and manageability

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 7, 2011 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the launch of VMware Zimbra® 7  – the latest version of its next-generation email and collaboration platform. Available today, customers can download Zimbra Collaboration Server 7 (formerly Zimbra Collaboration Suite) along with beta versions of VMware Zimbra Desktop 7 and VMware Zimbra Appliance 7 at http://www.zimbra.com/downloads.

VMware Zimbra 7 features new data sharing capabilities, expanded calendaring and search functionality, and upgraded management features for both IT and end-users. With this update, Zimbra is further optimized for both the casual and power-user, establishing a platform for a next-generation workspace within the VMware End-User Computing vision.

VMware’s End-User Computing vision seeks to free users and IT from more than two decades of complex, device-centric computing and deliver a more consumer-focused cloud experience for the enterprise. VMware Zimbra is among the largest business collaboration providers and is the largest on-premise open source collaboration suite in terms of paid mailboxes.

Jim Morrisroe, vice president, Zimbra Products, VMware said, “VMware Zimbra® continues to be the fastest-growing enterprise collaboration solution – now with more than 66 million paid mailboxes and more than 200,000 organizations using VMware Zimbra as their next-generation collaboration platform of choice.”

“With the continuing growth of our company and ever increasing business needs, a migration to a more feature rich and flexible email system is a natural progression,” said Michael Payne, senior systems administrator, Rent-A-Center. “Since deploying VMware Zimbra® across more than 5,000 Rent-A-Center locations, we now realize that true collaboration is about so much more. We look forward to implementing VMware Zimbra 7 which will allow our employees to stay connected with each other, from their stores or on the road, via a collaboration platform that offers email, dynamic calendaring and file sharing.”

“The enterprise inbox is going through dramatic changes,” said Erin K. Traudt, research director, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions program at IDC. “The impact of social media along with a new-generation of increasingly mobile workers creates new demands on collaboration platforms. The concept of ‘sharing more and sending less’ becomes a key capability that enterprises should consider as they look to arm their workforce with the essentials of everyday business communications.”

New capabilities in VMware Zimbra 7 include:

Share more, send less:

  • File Sharing – VMware Zimbra 7 includes access to Zimbra’s Briefcase functionality, which allows users to easily share or store files in the cloud, enabling lightweight document management with added control directly from within Zimbra. Users can upload and access multiple versions of a Briefcase file or document, and new “check-in” and “check-out” controls further simplify document management and collaboration.
  • Finding and Communicating with People – With People Search, users have access to contact lists, org charts, seating charts, etc., simultaneously – making it easy to find contacts within the web client. With new compatibility available in VMware Zimbra 7, users also have the ability to forward contacts as a vCard, making sharing contact information easier than before.
  • Administrator Benefits – Improved administration with role-based delegation at multiple administrator levels enables features such as distribution list management – which allows administrators to set parameters around who can email certain distribution lists, drastically reducing spam. VMware Zimbra 7 also features simple policies to control automatic recovery (reboot) of Zimbra virtual servers, Zimbra server load balancing, and zero-downtime hardware maintenance.

Stay connected from anywhere:

  • Enhanced mobile experience – VMware Zimbra mobile supports native app sync, HTML formatted emails and automatic synchronization of email tags & flags. VMware Zimbra also now offers access to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 to customers via the VMware Zimbra Connector for BlackBerry 7.0, enabling users to sync mail, address books, calendar and tasks. Additionally, mobile device management and security features such as remote device wipe, protect sensitive information.
  • Desktop Updates – Now the VMware Zimbra Gallery is fully integrated and available on VMware Zimbra Desktop, providing users with a unified online and desktop experience.
  • Simplified End-User Authentication – VMware Zimbra 7 supports industry standard protocols for Single-Sign-On (SSO) via OpenID, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and Kerberos.

Managing your inbox:

  • Increased productivity – Calendaring updates drastically improve workflow by making it easier to coordinate appointments and schedule meetings among multiple people. The Scheduling Wizard helps users suggest times, rooms, and resources to all attendees simultaneously – taking location and time zone into account – making it simpler to coordinate schedules.
  • Easily recover deleted items – Users can recover deleted items before they are purged, creating an inbox that is more “self-service,” increasing user satisfaction while reducing the burden on IT and associated costs.
  • Email and SMS Reminders – Email and SMS based reminders can be configured for alerts from Calendar and tasks. The preferences for these can be configured globally for all reminders and tasks, and are then applied to all the events.
  • User Scheduled Message Delivery – Users have the ability to schedule messages to be sent at a future date and time, making it easier to manage their inbox.

“As a leader in storage and data management solutions, we're excited about the latest advances in the service-based delivery of messaging and collaboration announced by VMware Zimbra®,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Corporate Alliances at NetApp. “Leveraging network file systems, NetApp optimizes Zimbra deployments to help customers transition to a flexible and efficient shared infrastructure, which is optimal for virtualization and cloud computing.”

Pricing and availability:

VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server 7, along with beta versions of VMware Zimbra Desktop 7 and VMware Zimbra Appliance 7 are now available for download here. The full suite of VMware Zimbra products is available through VMware sales and via VMware’s more than 25,000 channel partners. For more information on VMware Zimbra, please visit: www.vmware.com/products/zimbra/

About VMware:

VMware delivers virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform – VMware vSphere™ – customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2010 revenues of $2.9 billion, more than 250,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.


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VMware, VMware vSphere, and VMware Zimbra are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.