(replying to myself) now that I think about it more, IIRC Zimbra has offered some sort of 'enterprise' edition of their software with per-seat licensing which had more functionality than their base distro. The prices were relatively high though, and I'm not sure how much traction they've gotten.
If VMware wanted to really shake things up, they'd drop or drastically reduce the per-seat fees and offer the collaboration suite in a prebuilt image as a value-add for people using their VM products. A cheap/free exchange alternative that's simple to roll out would be a compelling use of a virtual machine. Adam W. Farkas, MD, MBA President, Wolf Bioscience Inc. 1.866.WOLFBIO From: Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Adam W. Farkas, MD Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:20 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: VMWare Aquires Zimbra Stan - My best guess would be that it is a synergistic acquisition. Zimbra is a great alternative for smaller orgs but can be a bear to set up. If VMware creates a 'certified' VM image of it with a reasonable configuration that businesses can quickly deploy, it would help drive adoption of their virtualization products. I'm guessing that's what they were thinking, but who knows. Adam Adam W. Farkas, MD, MBA President, Wolf Bioscience Inc. 1.866.WOLFBIO From: Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stanley Brinkerhoff Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: VMWare Aquires Zimbra It appears that VMWare bought out Zimbra. Any thoughts on why? It seems outside VMWare's normal vertical to enter the end user application world. http://www.zimbra.com/about/vmware-acquires-zimbra.html Stan
