Zimbra, Scalix upgrade messaging platforms

Messaging and collaboration vendors Zimbra and Scalix this week are expected to update their wares with new collaboration tools, XML-based integration features, synchronization technology and management controls.

Zimbra is releasing Version 4.0 of its Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), which has a feature called Zimbra Documents for creating, sharing and publishing documents. Zimbra also is adding support for real-time, native, mobile synchronization technology from such vendors as Motorola, Nokia and Palm, and is including new user-access controls and management tools.

Scalix is upgrading its Linux-based software to Version 11 and is adding full-index search and other features to its Web-based client. Also new are intelligent caching technology for use with Microsoft Outlook, support for new PDA and XML-based synchronization mechanisms, a Web-based client for mobile devices, and a new Web services architecture.

“The integration of e-mail with a variety of Web services-enabled back-end data sources, anything and everything you can name, will become critical,” says Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research. Such integration lets data from many sources be brought into the context of messaging, he says: “It allows for the richer use of e-mail.” Zimbra and Scalix are chasing that reality, as second-tier e-mail and collaboration vendors fight major players IBM and Microsoft for new customers. The two companies are scheduled to make their announcements at this week’s LinuxWorld conference.

Zimbra’s focus is on extending its Web-based client — which is built on Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (AJAX) technology — to include documents and spreadsheets among its collaboration features. The company is using its technology called AJAX Linking and Embedding, which lets users embed documents inside one another.

With Zimbra Documents, users have a simple WYSIWYG editor with which to create rich documents that can be shared from internal servers or over the Web using a URL. The company is expected to add version controls and rollback capabilities in the next release. Zimbra Documents supports Zimlets, small applications that integrate e-mail with third-party data sources.

“I’m hoping Zimbra will blur the line between the e-mail interface and ERP access,” says Dave Jenkins, CTO of online outdoor gear retailer Backcountry. “We want to write some scripts on the back end to yank things out of the database and then send e-mail to users.”

ZCS 4.0 is available this week and is priced at $28 per user for the commercial version.

Scalix has added index search, delegated access, automated out-of-office features and its own migration tools to its Web client. Also new is a Web-access mobile client, a browser-based application built on the company’s new Web services architecture.

The company has used the same architecture to open up its management console and support integration with other corporate management infrastructures. Also new are support for SynchML, an XML-based protocol for synchronizing data among devices, and a scripting feature that lets users write their own plug-ins for the Scalix management console.