We’re excited to announce that Zimbra support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 (BES 5.0) will be generally available with the release of Zimbra Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 6.5 (ZCB 6.5) in the first half of Q4. For companies that want a better alternative to frustrating traditional email platforms, Zimbra is the first alternative to offer full support for the latest BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

ZCB 6.5 will add platform support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express 5.0, providing native synchronization of mail, address book, calendar and tasks in BlackBerry devices. ZCB 6.5 will also provide support for Windows Server 2008 (32- and 64-bit).

Last month, we opened up the ZCB 6.5 Beta Program and received tremendous interest from customers of all shapes and sizes — from SMBs with 25 mailbox deployments to enterprise customers and hosting partners with 50,000+ mailbox deployments. The feedback we are receiving from customers participating in the ZCB 6.5 Beta Program is extremely positive and really shows us how great the demand is for BES 5.0 support.

Here’s what our customer Thomas Klaube, CTO of Ertel & Friends Multimedia GmbH had to say: “Our employees are often on-the-go and need full-featured mobile access to collaboration tools, so we are really excited that Zimbra is leading the way in support for the latest BlackBerry platform. We joined the ZCB 6.5 Beta Program and were up and running in no time.”

Zimbra is committed to continued support of the latest and greatest BlackBerry platforms and we’re really thrilled to be the first alternative email and collaboration platform to offer customers native integration with BES 5.0 and BES Express 5.0.

Stay tuned for the official ZCB 6.5 release date!

To learn more about ZCB, click on the links below:
http://www.zimbra.com/products/blackberry-enterprise-server.html

http://www.zimbra.com/downloads

VMworld is just around the corner, and not only is it VMware’s most important event of the year, it’s also shaping up to be big for Zimbra too.  We will be exhibiting with our new organization for the first time, showing off the new Zimbra Appliance and talking a lot more about the future of Zimbra and VMware together.

On the later point, we also want to provide an opportunity for attendees and customers in the general vicinity to hear about the Zimbra roadmap and provide us directional feedback away from the bustle of the show floor.  As such we are having an Advisory Meeting and breakfast on Wednesday September 1st.  The meeting is offsite at the W Hotel, so both show attendees and non-attendees are welcome.

Topics will include ZCS 7.0 features, Zimbra Appliance and Zimbra Desktop plus a round table discussion with the Zimbra product leadership team.

Date:     Wednesday September 1, 2010

Time:     8am – 10am

Location:     W Hotel, San Francisco

Space is limited and breakfast will be served, please RSVP to confirm your space and room location to: events@zimbra.com.

Also – for those planning on attending VMworld please remember the Tech Exchange where you can learn about Zimbra APIs, building Zimlets and more from the Zimbra product and development teams.

Please note if you cannot make the Advisory this time we will continue to host more in the future at major events!

Zimbra Desktop 2.0 Beta 4 has just been released. Zimbra Desktop is a free and open source email client application that gives you on- and off-line access to all your email accounts in one place. Whether you use Zimbra, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Microsoft Exchange, Zimbra Desktop greatly simplifies your inbox experience.

A detailed list of ZD 2.0 enhancements is available at the Zimbra Product Portal. If you are coming from an earlier ZD 2.0 Beta, one of the bigger differences you’ll notice is Zimlet support. We’ve included Zimlets like Email Reminder and everyone’s favorite Social. And you can install additional ZD compatible Zimlets via the Preferences area.

Download links are provided below. Please comment, submit feedback and questions via the Community Forums, or make use of Bugzilla to file confirmed bugs and request enhancements.

Enjoy!

Download Zimbra Desktop 2.0 Beta 4

• Windows: zdesktop_2_0_beta4_b10514_win32.msi (MD5)
• Mac OS: zdesktop_2_0_beta4_b10514_macos_intel.dmg (MD5)
• Linux: zdesktop_2_0_beta4_b10514_linux_i686.tgz (MD5)

Documentation

• Installation & Setup
• Release Notes
• FAQ

2010 has been a busy year for the Zimbra team since we joined VMware in February.  And today, we are excited to announce the launch of the Zimbra Appliance.

The Zimbra Appliance is our first major step post acquisition to integrate Zimbra and VMware products and provide a simplified IT experience for administrators and their users.  We have spent the last 5 months speaking with VMware and Zimbra customers and re-affirming their need for a simplified collaboration software stack that embraces the IT Platform of the future.

The call for simplicity reflects changes in the overall IT landscape driven by the evolution of user, administrator and datacenter requirements – many of these inspired by events in the consumer market.   Whether it is the simplicity of the Amazon Kindle, the open platform of Facebook or the cross platform support of Twitter, users and administrators expect applications to be easier to use and deliver than ever before.

Here is a summary of market drivers influencing the launch of Zimbra Appliance:

User:

Users want applications to be available on any device, anywhere and anytime.  These applications need to be available using traditional desktop clients and via the browser.  The collaboration cloud is a hub for communications: regardless of device, the user has the context he needs to make decisions — like what flights to take, which purchase orders to accept/reject, or what information should be synced with the CRM system. Additionally, users want to be able to share information with co-workers, partners and other external users.  Ted Schadler at Forrester recently wrote about this need to empower users.

Based on these needs and core to the Zimbra Appliance is our support for Zimbra Desktop, an offline cache of the user’s collaboration cloud, and our browser-based support for desktop, touchpad and mobile browsers.  Additionally, we continue our support for legacy email clients (Microsoft Outlook) and a wide range of mobile devices (iPhone, Android and BlackBerry).

Administrator:

Administrators’ requirements have also changed and now require a simpler application stack that is easier to deploy, manage and update.  Administrative innovations from companies like Saleforce.com and Successfactors have made it easier to deploy, manage and update applications that provide web-based administration tools and a complete software stack (application, operating system and update tools).

As part of offering a collaboration cloud as a complete software bundle, administrators are able to deploy the Zimbra Appliance in under 10 minutes.  Beyond a quick set up, the Zimbra Appliance provides administrative tools for self-service, auto update, security policy control and the ability to remotely wipe a mobile device wipe.

Datacenter:

The last key change in the IT market that is driving simplification is that organizations want to deploy applications in a private or public cloud.  In order to maximize flexibility and drive down the total cost of ownership, applications need to be portable and provide support for standards-based virtualization (OVF) and cross platform back up tools.

The Zimbra team has worked closely with hosting providers like Hosting.com and Contegix as well as many small businesses to make sure that the Appliance can be easily moved from private to personal clouds.  Additionally, the Zimbra Appliance supports VMware’s Data Recovery so that administrators can manage multiple applications with a common back up and recovery tool.

This is just the first step on our efforts to integrate with other VMware products and continue our mission is to simplify IT and to provide a collaboration cloud that can run anywhere.  Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.

Check out a video of the Zimbra Appliance for more information:

We’re excited to be part of our first VMworld, where we’ll take center stage to showcase Zimbra products.

August 30-September 2 at Moscone Center, San Francisco
October 12-14, Bella Center, Copenhagen

VMworld is a great chance to keep up on the latest technology trends, with over 300 different breakout sessions and labs on topics like leveraging the cloud, virtualizing enterprise applications and managing the desktop as a service. It is also a great opportunity to meet with knowledge experts or join group discussions with peers and industry experts. And, you’ll hear presentations from VMware leaders along with outside guest speakers. Plus you won’t want to miss the band. Last year was Foreigner, can you guess who it is this time? (Hints: + 30 million records; 7 top Billboard hits).

Below is a list of the Zimbra activities that we have planned. If you have not already signed-up and you would like to attend this year’s event, click on any of the links below to get to the registration pages. We hope that you can join us at VMworld 2010!

Sessions

Breakout Speakers:

1. “Lessons from the Cloud: How Application Clouds Are Evolving to Meet New End User, Administrator and Datacenter Trends” – John Robb PC8326
2. “Zimbra and The Future for Mission Critical Apps in the Virtualized Enterprise” – Jon Dybik EA8210

Tech Exchange for Developers (requires additional registration):

1. “Zimbra Deployment Best Practices, Virtual Application Benchmarking and Performance Versus MS Exchange” – Anup Patwardhan & Charles Windom ADD06
2. “Developing and Deploying Custom Zimbra User Interface and 3rd Party Integrations” – Raja Rao ADD05

Education

Hands-On Lab Activities covering everything from an intro of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite to advanced server management. LAB05

Product Demos in the VMware Booth

Genius Bar (serving up knowledge on whatever you want to discuss)

Theater presentations

 
So come meet the team! It’s a great experience, not to mention some other good reasons you should go.
 

We have two exciting announcements about our Zimbra Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (ZCB)!

First, we just released ZCB 6.0. This new release works with Zimbra Collaboration Suite 6.0 and includes some cool enhancements:

• Better calendar synchronization
• Removes runtime dependency on Microsoft Outlook processes
• Improved performance and stability

But we didn’t stop there: Today we are also announcing plans for ZCB 6.5 Beta and are looking for Beta testers. ZCB 6.5 will add support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0. This is a terrific step forward for the Zimbra products and supports our commitment to providing ubiquitous access to messaging and collaboration data regardless of channel or device.

To learn more about ZCB 6.0 and download, click on the link below:

http://www.zimbra.com/products/blackberry-enterprise-server.html

http://www.zimbra.com/downloads

To join the ZCB 6.5 Beta Program:

Please send an email to beta@zimbra.com if you are interested in gaining early access to ZCB 6.5 Beta and trying BES 5.0 integration.

Thank you for your continued support!

In final installment of this series we recently had a chance to sit down with Frances Atkinson, the Director of Institutional & Academic Technologies, IT Services at Simon Fraser University, one of the over 500 educational organizations that have deployed the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Network Edition worldwide. Not too long ago, SFU decided to upgrade their collaboration system and investigated several options. No surprise, Zimbra won out! Now, two and a half years later, SFU is seeing how Zimbra is benefiting all of their campus systems.

Highlights from our discussion with Frances are below:

How are SFU’s staff, faculty, and students using Zimbra Collaboration Suite?

Zimbra has become more than just an email and calendaring solution at Simon Fraser – it has evolved into the campus communications “hub” used by all faculty, staff and students. With Zimbra, calendaring and document sharing are available to everyone for the first time, and fewer users are forwarding to external sites like Gmail. Additionally, SFU connected Zimbra to other campus systems increasing campus-wide organization and efficiency. Students and faculty also have the ability to access Zimbra via mobile devices, including BlackBerrys. This mobile access is even more important since we now have the ability to send out notifications to all users for emergencies, weather, downtime, etc.

 
How are you customizing Zimbra to meet the needs of the SFU student body?

SFU is taking advantage of Zimbra’s open source functionality by using several Zimlets – including Calendar Scheduler, Arcade, Google Translator and Yahoo Local – we are able to extend the product and bring features to people who may not have otherwise found these resources.

We have even generated Zimlets of our own. These SFU Zimlets offer students and faculty a simple way to access course information, alerts/tips & tricks and their mySFU profiles. The course resource Zimlet is definitely the most important Zimlet for the students. It allows them to pull up all their course information for the current, past and next term, including the course description, syllabus, video content and digitized lectures. It helps to keep students organized and on track to graduate. Faculty and staff also utilize Zimlets to reserve rooms and equipment.

Additionally, we have branded Zimbra as SFU Connect, and we got the community involved by holding a naming and logo contest. We’ve personalized SFU Connect by providing users with a tip/trick or message of the day upon startup to help them use the portal to its full capacity.

 
What are your students and/or faculty saying about Zimbra?

Zimbra satisfied the desire of the students and faculty to have access to a modern, feature-rich, communications environment. Not only is the email and calendaring solution functional and well-suited to serve the entire campus, but its open source nature is lauded by faculty and students alike. By choosing an open source product, SFU has the potential to integrate with other products as the University’s needs continue to evolve.

Telenet, one of the largest internet providers in Belgium, recently announced the rollout of a new webmail platform developed in collaboration with Zimbra. Since April 2010, Telenet has been providing access to the new system for over 1 million residential internet subscribers and will continue the migration through August 1st. The updated email suite – which is free to Telenet customers – provides 5 GB of storage, a built-in calendar and address book, many advanced tools like sharing, automated importing of external mail accounts, plus more features to come.

Previously, Telenet internet customers had a basic mail utility and minuscule quota space of 50 MB. The new interface, powered by Zimbra, is extremely user friendly and is supported by 100x more storage. Other improved features include the ability to set up rules for filtering incoming mail and access to a mobile browser version. Several factors, including lower disk costs and the broadening availability of both virtualization and cloud applications made it possible for Telenet to make this update available to its customers. (One such distributed object storage framework is from Bizanga/Scality, who developed a connector for Zimbra, and has a video on Telenet’s strategy here.)

According to Saskia Schatterman, Executive Vice President Residential Marketing, no less than 70% of their customers use Telenet email on a regular basis and just over half report that account is their primary address. Those customers can now send mail anywhere, from any device with Internet access; putting aside the need to also use alternatives like Hotmail or Gmail. With this cutting-edge webmail architecture, Telenet can provide all of their broadband customers with a sophisticated and full featured product, that’s still simple to use.
 
The rollout of the advanced Telenet email platform is phased, all existing internet customers will automatically be granted access to the new communication suite and will be notified once their mailbox has been transitioned. Brand-new users will receive access to the Zimbra webmail client by default.

With this integration Zimbra continues to deliver on its promise of providing hassle-free collaboration solutions to our partners around the world. We look forward to sharing news about additional international organizations in the coming months.

Lot of times you need to make a quick note about something in an email or a little reminder for yourself like “I need to confirm those dates” or “add John’s phone number” or “attach the PPT” etc.  But there is no easy way to capture that thought instantly.  Sticky Notes Zimlet helps solve that problem by allowing you to attach a note to a particular email.

The Sticky Notes Zimlet is really easy to use…all you do is make a quick note and attach it to your email. Once you attach your Sticky Note, it will automatically pop up the next time you re-open your email.

How to create your own Sticky Notes:

Simply select an email and click on the “StickyNotes” toolbar button or drag and drop your email onto the Zimlet to add your notes.

StickyNotes in Contacts (v1.6+):

Similar to emails, you can attach notes to Contacts as well. Simply select a Contact and press “StickyNotes” button.

StickyNotes in Calendar (v1.6+):

Similar to emails, you can attach notes to Appointments as well. Simply select a Contact and press “StickyNotes” button.

How to Enable the Sticky Notes Zimlet:

Click on “Sticky Notes” in the left overview pane and select the following:

a. Select “Add StickyNotes button to main toolbar” checkbox

b. Select “Enable Sticky Notes Zimlet” checkbox

How to Find Your Sticky Notes (via Tags):

After your enable the Sticky Notes Zimlet, a yellow-colored tag called “Emails with StickyNotes” is created. When you attach a StickyNote to your email message, your email or conversation will have a yellow tag. This yellow tag is removed when the Sticky Note is deleted.

How to Search for a Sticky Note (via Tags):

You can search and keep track of all of your Sticky Note emails by clicking on the tag or by searching for them in the main search bar.

Download:

You can download the Zimlet here:  http://gallery.zimbra.com/type/zimlet/sticky-notes

Release Notes:

1. Version 1.6 now allows attaching StickyNotes for Contacts & Appoints as well

2. Version  1.5 adds scalability via CustomMetadata API. You can now add Sticky Notes to as many of your emails as you want.

2. Version 1.5+ is only compatible with ZCS 6.0.7+