MxToolBox offers a Zimbra version of its backup e-mail system.With all of the fear, uncertainty and doubt swirling around the Microhoo bid, a lot has been written about the future of Yahoo's employees, but what about its customers?
For example, what happens to users of Zimbra, the hosted e-mail and collaboration software maker Yahoo acquired last year? Whether or not Microsoft folds Zimbra's flag or lets it fly remains to be seen, but MxToolBox claims it has an alternative solution for customers worried about what might happen to their e-mail data should Microsoft buy Yahoo.
That solution, of course, lies in the cloud, where Microsoft has yet to move its Exchange e-mail server.
The Austin, Texas-based e-mail security and management software provider, whose rivals in the SAAS (software as a service) e-mail space include Google's Postini and Dell's MessageOne, released new e-mail continuity services based on version 5.0 of the ZCS (Zimbra Collaboration Suite).
MxToolBox founder Eric Rachal said EmZ (Emergency Mail Zimbra Edition) allows small businesses (an average of 50 employees) with a traditional on-premises e-mail system, including any version of Microsoft Exchange, to run in parallel with hosted Zimbra servers.
Indeed, Rachal said he believes businesses will soon begin chucking their Exchange servers for hosted e-mail solutions like the ones his company, Google, Dell and others offer. However, this won't come without some pain.
"A lot of these companies are very hesitant to give up that Exchange server," Rachal told eWEEK April 29. "It sits in the corner, it's friendly, it's nice. We're able to run parallel with their Exchange server. We can go to a customer and sell them a Zimbra-based solution that plays nice with their on-premises Exchange solution.”
Here's how it works: EmZ copies all e-mail messages created on Zimbra servers and hosts them in MxToolBox data centers. Users can send and receive mail from their Emergency Mail box through the Zimbra AJAX Web interface with no switchover time or intervention by IT staff.
The idea is to let users access their data in the event of natural disasters, server failures, or even uncertainty over a potential integration of the Zimbra assets into Microsoft vis-à-vis Yahoo.
Indeed, MxToolBox intends to capitalize on the fear Zimbra users may experience should Yahoo be acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft, Rachal said, is moving toward the cloud but is not there. He argued that MxToolBox is already there, ready to offer Zimbra users a soft place to land their data.
Some customers fall into the cloud and never go back. Rachal said MxToolBox had customers on an earlier version of the service who were affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Some of those customers decided never to plug their mail servers back in.
EmZ is available now on a monthly subscription basis, starting at $1.99 per user.
