Complete with Operating System, Open-Xchange Appliance Edition Delivers e-Mail, Calendar; Ideal for On-Premise Installation, Virtual Dedicated Hosting Implementations

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., October 23, 2008 – Open-Xchange, the leading provider of open source groupware, today announced a new offering for small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) seeking easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy e-mail and collaboration software that is a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Exchange -- with an initial cost of less than $70 per user annually.

 The Open-Xchange Appliance Edition is server software that comes complete with operating system, plus capabilities for e-mail, calendar and document sharing, managing contacts and tasks, as well as backup and recovery, anti-spam and anti-virus protection. It can handle anywhere from 10 to hundreds of users.

"Small- and mid-sized business owners are demanding the same capabilities as large corporations," said Rafael Laguna, CEO, Open-Xchange. "Our new Appliance Edition gives these businesses advanced collaboration tools at affordable costs, while enabling service providers an opportunity to give their clients more features at a lower cost as a virtual dedicated server offering."

 Built using a combination of Open-Xchange Hosting Edition (used by more than 8 million users worldwide) and Univention Corporate Server 2.1, the collaboration software provides businesses with all the tools needed to facilitate effective teamwork. Users get access to their relevant data and documents with either the AJAX-based web interface or Microsoft Outlook.

Included is a fully-supported Debian-based Linux, along with Samba file and print services, and software connectors for Microsoft Active Directory to facilitate user and group administration, as well as integration into existing IT infrastructure.