TooMuchGreen

No matter what Google Wave or Tweetdeck may present to us in the way of cutting edge instant comms the bulky back end business world of I.T is invariably slow to adopt such technological freshness. Email is still the preferred method of communication and will probably be so for some time, as such it’s obviously somewhat prudent to have a robust and comprehensive cost effective solution in place.

The big old Microsoft giant presently rules the roost with MS Exchange and there’s no denying its ubiquitous suitability as a communications enabler and business flow facilitator, however being a Microsoft product of course it’s not cheap. At around $3,000 for the Enterprise version + $30 per single CAL (Client Access Licence) even for a small to medium sized organisation it doesn’t take a gifted accountant to realise how much eMail and shared calendars can drain an already cash strapped budget, but is there really an alternative?

Well, yes, there is indeed, and not just a cheaper alternative (substantially cheaper in fact –  i.e FREE) but one which also offers matched functionality alongside inversely related ease of admin and installation. Ladies & Gentlemen, let me introduce Citadel Groupware, yet another superb success story from the wonderful world of open source.

There’s a legacy attitude to shy away from free products as they’re invariably perceived as sub standard, however the opposite couldn’t be more true with Citadel and it really is a credit to itself, so much so it’s quite rightly being tagged as an “Exchange killer”, let’s have a look at why.

For one there’s the ease of installation and anyone who’s wrestled for (potentially) weeks with raw Linux mail systems will know exactly where I’m coming from. Even the hardiest of sys admins can lose irretrievable chunks of their lives just trying to configure a server for remote client send & receive, let alone for extended webmail & groupware calendaring functionality (add those into the mix and we could be talking weeks). Citadel is a good days work.

Admittedly there are a certain amount of pre-requisites to attend to, setting up the server OS, ensuring domain & MX records are configured correctly etc but you need to secure the ground for any enterprise solution and once done Citadel almost installs itself (albeit with a bit of guidance en-route and some bits and bobs of post-installation admin to configure accounts & domain aliases). Added LDAP connectivity (MS Active Directory authentication/single sign on) may stretch the “good days work” tag a few notches but with integration coming as a factored feature you’re still going to be home in good time.

The Citadel feature list is certainly quite something and covers every requirement for comprehensive groupware, and them some, I really recommend you visit the site yourself but as a taster here’s a brief run down of what’s in the mix…

• eMail (IMAP/POP3 & authenticated SMTP/SSL for all protocols). Accessible from any desktop client, e.g MS Outlook, MS Outlook Express, Mac OSX Mail, Thunderbird (Mac/PC/Linux), Evolution (Linux/Gnome)), Kontact (Linux/KDE), Opera Mail & Eudora.
• AJAX based WebMail with full access to all other system functionality via WebCit
• Multiple Domain support & cross server replication (unlimited scalability)
• Unique database-driven, single-instance message store
• Support for push eMail & mobile devices
• Shared address books
• Shared calendaring
• Instant messaging
• Mailing list server
• Bulletin Boards

WebCit screenshot :

But there’s more, encompassed in all the above comes Citadels unique strong point – Rooms.

“A room may be used as an email folder, a discussion forum, a real-time chat, a mailing list, a calendar, an address book, an RSS reader, or several of these at the same time. You can also distribute a Citadel installation across multiple servers, allowing unlimited horizontal scalability”.

And as Citadel itself also most proudly states…

“Citadel is true open source software. Unlike other groupware servers, it isn’t a cut-down version of an expensive proprietary “pro” version. We make our very best work available to everyone on the same terms. 100% of our code is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL3)”

TooMuchGreen are strong advocates of Citadel, we use it ourselves and can provide comprehensive installation, migration and support services for new or existing instances. We would be more than happy to help you streamline your groupware solution through a Citadel platform. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Or, alternatively you could opt for MS Exchange 2010, it’s your choice and of course your money and your time, maybe you have plenty of both? If so we’re happy for you, but us, we much prefer an easy (and cheap) life