Open Source Messaging & Collaboration: Zarafa

SOS Open Source analyzed Zarafa, the open-source alternative to Microsoft Exchange, maintained by the homonymous company headquartered in  the Netherlands (Delft) with offices in Germany and Brasil. The Zarafa Summer Camp 2011 was the perfect venue to share our findings around Zarafa (presentation), if you missed our keynote read below to know more this open source messaging and collaboration platform.

Zarafa was released as open source about three years ago, but before that it was already considered a viable alternative to Microsoft Exchange, and its code base results mature and stable (information inferred from the public bug-tracking system). A book specialized on Zarafa is on the way, case-studies are available (also from large solution providers) along with a number of forums (even in French and Portoguese). Zarafa popularity compares well with other European competitors, especially in some countries (e.g. , Austria, Germany, the Netherlands).

Zarafa is backed by a team of 10+ internal developers, with an alive and kicking ecosystem contributing extensions and integrations. Zarafa Industrialization is solid. Documentation is available in English and also in other languages.