Product FAQ
= What's the exact product definition and what's the unique selling point? Open-Xchange Hosting Edition:
Open-Xchange Hosting Edition is the only groupware specifically designed for the needs of SaaS providers. With Open-Xchange, web hosters, ISPs, telecommunication enterprises and IT service enterprises can enhance their product range with SaaS offers as modular system step by step. Open-Xchange Hosting Edtion is a modular solution that allows ...
the continued usage of existing E-Mail server infrastructures and provisioning back-ends without migrating a seemless integration of systems like Plesk Panel, Parallels Operation Automation, Cpanel and more staying competitive against Microsoft, Google and Yahoo Mail, by replacing your outdated webmail solution with the AJAX based webmail solution by Open-Xchange at low cost for all existing E-Mail accounts to offer your new and existing customers new and innovative SaaS solutions like collaboration and groupware on the new Open-Xchange Webmail platform to offer state-of-the-art mobility solutions to your customers at low cost and with decent margins to continuously offer your customers new and modern features to quickly realize all new offers at low cost
Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition:
Excellent value for money, comfortable and complete! The Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition is a out-of-the-box solution for all small and medium-sized enterprises up to 1000 users, who want to run an E-Mail and file server – without having to rely on an IT expert. Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition combines the Enterprise Linux operating system Univention Corporate Server (UCS) with the reliable Open-Xchange Groupware code base. The Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition includes E-Mail and Collaboration Server, file management, virus and spam protection. Thanks to the seemless UCS integration, Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition is easy to install and offers an intuititve graphical web interface (AJAX) for all important administrative tasks like user and group management. Advanced UCS functionalities like Samba can also be used.
Open-Xchange Server Edition:
Open-Xchange Server Edition is a modular system, is based on open standards and is very well suited for the integration into existing IT infrastructures, allowing e.g. the continued use of existing E-Mail back-ends and any directory services like AD, LDAP or eDirectory. Open-Xchange Server Edition is aimed at enterprises, educational institutes and public services, looking for a communication solution tailored to their needs. Open-Xchange Server Edition is multiple-client capable and supports more than 10,000 users per client for any number of clients.
What are the current product highlights? Integration aspect: Open-Xchange Server Edition seemlessly integrates into existing E-Mail back-ends and directory services. There are no migration efforts for implementing the groupware. Projects are drastically simplified. Out of the box solution (OX Advanced Server Edition) – operating system, mail back-end, Samba, directory service, antispam and antivirus „out of the box“. Plug-in concept: Own GUI plug-ins or server side plug-ins can easily be integrated. Mobile devices can be connected with Exchange Active Sync, SyncML or a modern HTML 5 „Mobile Web App". Team calendar: scheduling meetings and appointments based on free appointments of all participants – any time, anywhere and with almost any end device Integrated file management (“on-line hard drive”) - editing shared files without sending E-Mails back and forth, central storage and automatic back-up, versioning, integrating into the local client across firewall boundaries with WEBDAV(S). Up-to-date AJAX based user interface in the browser, no fat clients needed, thus drastically reducing the adminstrative efforts. Combining any number of external E-Mail accounts in an intelligent "Unified In-Box". Displaying external calendars in Open-Xchange calendar. Modular system, each feature can be configured on a user basis (webmail, PIM, Groupware, file management), often most users only need few modules. Only those have to be licensed. Integration and synchronization of contacts and messages from dozens of social media sources like Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter or Xing. Which platforms are supported? Platforms Open-Xchange Server/Hosting Edition Open-Xchange Advanced Server Edition
Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES 11, SLES 11 SP1,)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 5, RHEL6)
Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) and Debian 6
Univention Corporate Server
CentOS 5.5
Ubuntu 8.04, 10.04
Only community
Fedora 9, 12, 13 Only community
openSUSE 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 Only community
Xubuntu 8.04, 9.04, 9.10 Only community
Which mobile synchronization possibilities are there? The solutions for connecting mobile devices to a central groupware are as numerous as the mobile devices themselves. Therefore, Open-Xchange offers various mobility solutions for each scenario:
Open-Xchange OXtender for Business Mobility
The Open-Xchange OXtender for Business Mobility is a cost-efficient and hardware-independant software solution based on the Microsoft Exchange Active Sync (EAS) technology, allowing you to have all your E-Mails, contacts, appointments and tasks well under control wherever you are.
Open-Xchange Mobile Web App
The Open-Xchange Mobile Web App allows easy access in real time to appointments, contacts, and E-Mails saved on the Open-Xchange Server when being on the road (on-line access). The Open-Xchange Mobile Web App offers a web client optimized for your mobile device's display.
Open-Xchange OXtender for SyncML
The open standard SyncML allows to synchronize your contact data with many end devices, without having to install additional software on your devices. You can use the server-side plug-in “OXtender for SyncML” that is based on the Open-Xchange USM Synchronization Framework for synchronizing your personal contact folders.
What are the differences between the mobile synchronization solution in detail? Feature/ Technology/ Device OXtender for Business Mobility Open-Xchange Mobile Web App OXtender for SyncML
Exchange Active Sync 2.5
Access and creation of emails
Personal PIM folder
(only contacts)
Public and Shared PIM folder
Global address book
Push email
Symbian (Mail for Exchange 3.x) (via Opera Mini)
Windows Mobile 6, 6.5
iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, iOS4 and iOS5
HTC Devices
BlackBerry (3rd Party EAS clients)
Android 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3
Windows Phone 7
Special Feature Phones
Which additional clients are supported (Outlook, Mac OS X)? In addition to the extensive support of the different mobility solutions Open-Xchange provides further tools for the different clients:
OXtender 2 for Microsoft Outlook®
The Open-Xchange OXtender 2 for Microsoft Outlook® allows to use Microsoft Outlook as rich client for all Open-Xchange Server 6 products. As usual, manage your E-Mails, appointments, contacts, and tasks in all personal, shared, and public folders. The OXtender synchronizes in real time new information on the Open-Xchange Server with the Outlook client making efficient team work possible. If being without internet connection, your changes will be synchronized when connecting to the Open-Xchange Server again.
Synchronization with MacOS X® per CardDAV and CalDAV
With the MacOS X integration you can use all information and documents you save on the Open-Xchange Server in your Mac environment. You can e.g. still edit E-Mails, contacts, appointments, and tasks in the familiar Mac applications Mail, Address book, and iCal. Even if the Mac is off-line, you can continue working as usual. The changes will be automatically synchronized the next time you connect to the Open-Xchange Server.
Where to find download information, install instructions, documentation? The following information can be viewed on the Open-Xchange information portal OXpedia:
Quick Installation Guide Hosting Edition deployment tutorials Upsell functionality; upsell layer installation and configuration OX Permission Level Matrix Installation and configuration of Open-Xchange Microsoft Outlook® Uploader; OXtender for Business Mobility; Open-Xchange Client Updater; CalDAV and CardDAV; Open-Xchange Mobile Web App; OXtender for SyncML; OXtender for cPanel Installation requirements Documentation Additional documentation Whitepapers and many more... What's the difference between shared hosting and dedicated servers? Shared hosting requires full support of multi-tenant/domain capabilities. One instance of the application serves a large number of customers. Each customer can work in his own environment within this instance – completely separated from each other customer. A dedicated server offers a complete instance for a single customer by separating each instance using for example virtualization technologies. Dedicated servers are mostly used for larger companies. Dedicated server offerings of Open-Xchange Server are already in place. Please contact us to obtain further details and references.
Which license Open-Xchange is subject to? Open-Xchange Server is licensed under the General Public License for the server software or “serverpack” and the Creative Commons, Attribution, Noncommercial, ShareAlike or CC:by-nc-sa (“Creative Commons”) for the digital content and JAVA script code used by the browser or the “webpack”. Further information are available here.
What's the cost of the Open-Xchange product solutions and where to find additional FAQs? To get more information and download Open-Xchange Server Edition for evaluation, please fill out our contact form.
Further technical FAQ's are available herehttp://sdb.open-xchange.com/faq!