Email

The Microsoft Outlook email client is the most ubiquitous piece of desktop messaging software in the corporate world. Analysts have estimated that by the end of 2003, there were approximately 323 million Outlook clients in use.

Until recently, because of Outlook's popularity, IT organizations have had very few alternatives in the server room. They were forced to run Exchange on Windows OS, to support Outlook with all of its groupware functionality.

With high costs and complex upgrade requirements, the current install base is hesitant to take on the monstrous task of upgrading from Exchange v5.5 to 2003 and beyond.

Aurora Online has chosen to use e-mail technology from CommunigateSystems to provide high availability e-mail solutions for its clients.

• POP3
• IMAP
• MAPI
• Calendaring / Scheduling
• Anti Virus
• Anti Spam

Now, with Communigate Systems CommuniGate Pro, corporations can continue to support popular Outlook for its many end users, but switch the back-end to a more robust, secure, cost effective CommuniGate Pro server environment.

Enabling CommuniGate Pro to support Outlook in full corporate 'workgroup' mode is the innovative MAPI Connector. Recently referred to as an "elegant and brilliant engineering feat," the MAPI connector sits with Outlook on the Windows desktop, and translates Microsoft proprietary MAPI language into standards-based MIME. The resulting data is then sent to the CommuniGate Pro server over the IMAP protocol.

CommuniGate Pro's groupware functionality is not limited solely to Outlook on the desktop. The integrated Webmail interface is also a secure groupware client, supporting messaging, scheduling, electronic discussions, and contact creation and maintenance. The server stores all groupware data in internet standard formats, ensuring interoperability with other systems using standard iCalendar/vCalendar or vCard data formats for information exchange; for example the CommuniGate Pro server can interact with Exchange and Lotus Notes servers, the Netscape/Mozilla calendaring client, Apple's iCAL calendar clients, PALM calendaring applications, etc.

Emerging calendaring client applications can also use HTTP/WebDAV protocol supported within CommuniGate Pro, and directly access and modify the same groupware data as the Outlook and Webmail clients.

Internet standard messaging, combined with sophisticated collaborative functionality, makes CommuniGate Pro an ideal solution for organizations looking for calendaring and scheduling on the desktop, or those wanting to replace expensive and unreliable messaging environments without losing end user functionality.