Connectivity

Zimbra Open Source Email Attracts 450 Hosting Partners

Zimbra, the open source email and collaboration software company owned by Yahoo, continues to make progress in the channel. The VAR Guy hears Zimbra now generates 60 percent of its revenue from partners, and hopes to push that figure closer to 70 percent by the end of this year. Here's the scoop from The VAR Guy.

September 9, 2009

Zimbra Open Source Email

Zimbra, the open source email and collaboration software company owned by Yahoo, continues to make progress in the channel. The VAR Guy hears Zimbra now generates 60 percent of its revenue from partners, and hopes to push that figure closer to 70 percent by the end of this year. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Our resident blogger sat down with Zimbra VP of Business Development Andy Pflaum during the Red Hat Summit (Sept. 1-4, Chicago). Pflaum said Zimbra now has more than 600 channel partners — roughly 450 of which are hosting Zimbra’s software for customers. Plus, Zimbra is staying out of the hosting business — leaving that opportunity entirely to partners.

Pflaum shares more thoughts in this FastChat video:

Highlights include:

0:00 – Introduction
0:17 – The state of Zimbra’s partner program
1:19 – Zimlets explained: How to integrate email with Salesforce.com and other apps
2:12 – VARs choosing between on-premise and hosted email and collaboration software
3:34 – end

Competition Looms

Despite Zimbra’s momentum the company continues to face intense competition. There’s Microsoft’s own on-premise Exchange Server and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Plus, a range of companies — Azeleos, groupSPARK and Intermedia, among others — have successfully built thriving managed Exchange businesses.

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