Zimbra (News - Alert), a Yahoo! company, has announced the availability of a new open extension framework for Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS). The company claims that this suite facilitates two-way interoperability with major collaboration platforms.

 

ZCS Interoperability for Exchange features include free/busy and schedule interoperability, where a Zimbra user can schedule a meeting with Exchange users as well as book resources like meeting rooms. As Exchange users can also schedule ZCS users, the company says it’s no different than working with another Exchange user. It also provides anytime, anywhere access as the feature works in all Zimbra clients, including Zimbra's AJAX Web Client, Outlook via Zimbra Connector for Outlook, Zimbra Mobile supported devices including any BlackBerry (News - Alert) or a Windows Mobile-based smartphone.

 

Zimbra now achieves integration with active directory which offers a unified Global Address List (GAL) of both ZCS and Exchange users in the same deployment. ZCS Interoperability for Exchange doesn't require any changes on the Exchange server as the service is totally managed in the Zimbra Administration Console.

 

To work seamlessly with other departments that use different collaboration servers like Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange, big companies and academic institutions can now easily integrate teams using Zimbra. They can also have the benefits of Zimbra without having to make the decision to replace their current systems up front. Building on Yahoo!'s (News - Alert) leadership in e-mail as a key starting point for users; this extends Zimbra's history of openness and compatibility to a broader range of platforms.

 

Allowing Zimbra users to access and share two-way free/busy information, first extension is built by Zimbra for the Microsoft Exchange 2003 platform, and now is in beta. It also schedules and global address book with colleagues whose data resides on Microsoft Exchange.

 

The ZCS 5.0 Open Source Edition is free. The commercially supported ZCS 5.0 Network Edition is available for a 60-day free trial on the Zimbra Web site.

 

“Interoperability with Exchange and other leading collaboration systems is a top request by many enterprises and academic institutions where mixed deployments are common,” said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and Yahoo! vice president. “Zimbra's recent growth with large organizations has been tremendous, with recent customer wins and deal expansions including Dai Nippon Publishing, Reliance Industries, H&R Block and Texas A&M University. This interoperability builds upon a long record of compatibility work by Zimbra and is one of the key needs for our largest customers.”