Zimbra Collaboration

Zimbra Collaboration is an enterprise collaboration and messaging platform that provides email, webmail, calendaring, contacts, and related groupware capabilities. It is commonly deployed by organizations that need an on-prem or private-cloud alternative to hosted suites.

Key Features

• Full-featured webmail client with conversation views, search, folders, tags, and attachments
• Calendar and scheduling with shared calendars, resource/room scheduling, and free/busy
• Contacts with address books, distribution lists, and global address list (directory integration)
• IMAP/POP/SMTP support for desktop/mobile mail clients
• Admin console for domain/account provisioning, quotas, policies, and monitoring
• Built-in anti-spam/anti-virus integration options and mail-flow controls (e.g., policies, routing)
• Backup/restore and delegation/sharing features (edition-dependent)

Use Cases

• Replace hosted email/collaboration suites for businesses, schools, and public-sector orgs
• Provide multi-domain email hosting with centralized administration and policy control
• Offer webmail + CalDAV/CardDAV-style groupware experience for mixed client environments

Limitations and Considerations

• Some capabilities (e.g., advanced backup, mobile sync/EAS, HA tooling) may depend on the specific Zimbra edition and installed add-ons
• Operating and upgrading a full mail stack requires careful DNS/TLS, deliverability, and storage planning

Zimbra is suited to organizations needing a mature, admin-friendly groupware platform with broad client compatibility and a rich web UI. Its modular server components and administrative tooling make it a common choice for enterprise-grade self-managed email and collaboration deployments.