News ASsignment 3

JJ Cook
Mrs. Pemberton
LIB 103
October 28, 2008
News Assignment 3
Zimbra by Yahoo will be making their debut on Tuesday. Zimbra is a provider of a communication and collaboration suite that rivals Microsoft Office and Outlook/Exchange. Zimbra manages all your mailbox content including messages, contacts, calendars, and attachments. Zimbras parent company is Yahoo. “Zimbra planned to become a host for on-demand versions of its suite, the company's co-founder and CEO Satish Dharmaraj told IDG News Service in September 2007, days after Yahoo bought his company.”
Zimbra is using Yahoo’s data centers to become a hosting provider for customers in the education market that want to access the suite on demand. Previously Zimbra has only counted on third-party hosting partners to offer the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)
“Most of the about 400 educational institutions that use the Zimbra suite have it installed on their own premises, said John Robb, vice president of product marketing and product management.”
The demand for Saas programs is growing among educational institutions. Educational universities like Zimbra software on their own servers for security and privacy reasons.
Since Yahoo has acquired Zimbra in 2007, Zimbra has doubled its installed base to about 20 million mailboxes. It now has more than 30,000 customers in over 80 countries. US$2 per year per mailbox without advertising is the price of the hosted suite for students and alumni. The paid option adds synchronization capabilities for I phones. Faculty accounts cost US$8 per year per mailbox including synchronization with Outlook and Blackberry devices.
Zimbra is a fast growing server. With their rivals being Microsoft Office and Outlook/Exchange this can affect students and faculty at educational institutions. With Yahoo being the parent company, Zimbra has potential to enter a lot of markets and affect the market share of Outlook/Exchange and Microsoft Office.
Perez, Juan C. Yahoo’s Zimbra Reaches for the Cloud. http://www.pcworld.com/ /businesscenter/article/152911/yahoos_zimbra_reaches_for_the_cloud.html. Tuesday, October 28, 2008.