Microsoft Exchange Replacement Releases Code Under GPLv3

Amsterdam, Holland – Zarafa has said that it will turn its popular groupware solution open source. Zarafa will introduce and maintain a dual licensing strategy. The company will license the full core of its software under the Affero GPLv3 license.

In an effort to sponsor and support the creation of an enterprise open source exchange replacement, the company will contribute the full core of the server-side source code of the Zarafa platform – known for its 100% MAPI compatibility and flexibility – to the community. This will allow more options for compatibility, localization, enhancements and further integration options with other systems.

Zarafa open source offering will consist of the Zarafa server, Z-Merge (a new web services API platform for application integration), the Zarafa IMAP/POP3/iCal gateway, the Zarafa Administration Console, the Zarafa WebAccess and many other tools and services. It is the only groupware platform that includes open source ActiveSync compatibility, which enables organizations to have remote synchronisation and pushmail for Windows Mobile, Nokia’s Mail for Exchange and iPhones.

“A strong technology community has emerged in the past year, to which more than 1000 specialists and developers contribute on a weekly basis. In cooperation with the project Openmapi, compatibility with additional platforms will be available in the near future”, said Brian Joseph, Zarafa's CEO. The software is used to run thousands of commercial servers supporting over one million users and includes an AJAX-based web client and robust Outlook support.

This open source community version includes:

• Ajax based webaccess
• Mobile webaccess
• IMAP/POP3 gateway
• iCal gateway
• Limited to 3 Outlook users
• Z-Push - ActiveSync compatiblity (licensed under GPLv2) 

You can find the binary packages or the source code at the download page.