The VAR Guy

It’s been less than a month since VMware officially acquired Zimbra — the open source email platform — from Yahoo. But VMware isn’t standing still. Jim Morrisroe, VP and GM of VMware’s Zimbra division, says the company is preparing software appliances that combine virtualization with Zimbra. They should arrive by Q2 2010. Plus, VMware’s channel will soon promote Zimbra offerings. But that’s not all…

Open-Xchange, an open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange, continues to gain momentum in Europe and North America. The latest example: Bull, a €1,110 million solutions provider headquartered in Paris, is offering SaaS and on-premises Open-Xchange to its end customers in Germany. Here are the details.

Zimbra, one of the best-known providers of open source email, may soon have a new owner. Rumors are swirling that Yahoo plans to sell Zimbra to VMware. If true, here are the implications for VARs and managed service providers — particularly in the SaaS (software as a service) market.

Two prominent open source applications providers — Open-Xchange and SugarCRM — are partnering to integrate their collaboration and customer relationship management software. The move comes as Open-Xchange recruits SaaS partners and on-premise channel partners to battle Microsoft Exchange. Here’s the scoop.

Open-Xchange, an open source groupware system that some VARs host for customers, has opened its arms to Apple. Indeed, Mac and iPhone users can now access documents stored on Open-Xchange servers. But there’s a bigger story here, folks: The continued, seemingly ironic blending of Apple and open source.

The VAR Guy was making one last trip around the exhibitor booths at OSCON (Open Source Convention), when he ran into a rather interesting rumor: Canonical is working with hardware partners and application developers to launch Ubuntu Linux server appliances at LinuxWorld Expo in August.