? Alternatives to MS Exchange Server ?

Our enterprise is currently outsourcing email hosting. We are considering changing to in-house email. Of course, we have looked at MS Exchange. However, the licensing fees are ridiculous -- for our company, licensing would cost around $20,000.00.

Is there an alternative to Exchange? One that offers shared calendars, tasking others, meeting requests/replies, etc?

My supervisor has heard about something he called Linux Like Exchange. Anyone have experience using such a product?

Suggestions are definitely welcome as we're in the discovery stages of this project. THANKS!

 

There is a lot of choice in e-mail servers, especially on the Linux side of things. I think it is more difficult to get the shared calandars, tasks etc. This is one thing that the Outlook/Exchange combination is so good at.

If cost is a key factor, I'd recommend you have a look at MDaemon. You'll need the Groupware add in to get the shared calendars etc. functionality. Debugging is a lot easier than Exchange, as is reinstalling and recovering from backup.

And I stick with that in spite of a problem with it on one site yesterday (see other thread).

I've also had good results in the past with FTGate but without the sharing functionality you want.

Otherwise have a look at the main corporate alternatives to Exchange: Lotus Domino/Notes, Novell Groupware. Not cheap options, but with a buget in the order of $20000 need to be considered.