Zimbra on mobile devices
The role of smartphones and other mobile devices in modern business is difficult to overestimate. From a simple means of communication, they have long ago evolved into a work tool that allows an employee of the enterprise not to be tied to his workplace, and therefore it is more rational to use working time, to earn more money for himself and for the enterprise. E-mail plays a special role in the mobile office concept. Despite the rapid development of instant messengers, it is the e-mail that remains the universal language of business communication and the current situation will change very soon.
Anyone who has experienced the administration of the free version of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Open-Source Edition mail server knows that its interaction with mobile devices is severely limited. In fact, out of the box you can only sync emails via IMAP with your smartphone, which implies a number of inconveniences. Synchronization of such things as a global address book or calendar with mobile devices in the free version of Zimbra is possible, but rather difficult to set up and not very reliable, and on most mobile devices it simply will not work without the use of third-party applications. In order to be able to get all the functionality of the Zimbra server on mobile devices and at the same time not give access to your data to third parties,
Zextras Mobile, part of the Zextras Suite, is a modular extension that allows you to bring the server with the free Zimbra Collaboration Suite in compliance with all modern standards for working with mobile devices. It adds support for the Exhcange ActiveSync protocol to Zimbra, thanks to which it is possible to synchronize all data with mobile devices without using any third-party clients. In addition to the already mentioned calendar and contact books, users have access to public folders and shared mailboxes, as well as instant push notifications not only about incoming emails, but also about various changes in the calendar, and so on. In addition, it is possible to work with the calendar directly from a mobile device: the user can create a meeting, invite participants to it,
Zextras Mobile can also be useful for employees working at a stationary workplace. The fact is that the support of the Exhcange ActiveSync protocol adds compatibility with MS Outlook 2013 and 2016 in Zimbra. This is especially true for those companies that have decided to switch from MS Exchange to the cheaper Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Such compatibility allows you to keep the already familiar interface of the mail client in the workplaces of company employees, completely replacing the server part, and thus make the transition to Zimbra seamless and perhaps even invisible to employees.
Administrators will certainly appreciate the ease of installation and configuration of Zextras Mobile. In fact, in order for mobile synchronization to start working, it is enough for the administrator to select categories or specific users who will be able to synchronize with mobile devices, however, there are also more fine-tuning options. For example, you can enable mobile sync only for management and sales, or for everyone except top management. The important point is that several accounts can be synchronized with one device, and one account can be synchronized with several devices, which increases the number of Zextras Mobile usage scenarios.
With support for the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, the Zimbra server administrator has a lot of opportunities to increase the security of using the Zimbra Collaboration Suite on mobile gadgets. It is no secret that the devices carried outside the office, to which the working mail regularly arrives, pose a great threat to the security of commercial secrets. This means that the IT manager must not only be able to remotely disconnect a compromised smartphone remotely, but also to prevent the retrieval of data such as the password from the account from it.
Another feature that makes using Zimbra on a smartphone more secure is Mobile Password. With its help, Zimbra server administrators can create an additional password for users, which will be used exclusively for authentication using the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Such a measure will avoid intercepting the password from the Zimbra account in public wireless networks, as well as extracting the password from a lost, stolen or cracked device, in addition, if you use a strict Mobile Password policy, you will avoid having to re-enter the password from the Zimbra account on your mobile device .
If in your enterprise corporate devices are used, then with the help of Zextras Mobile, the Zimbra server administrator will be able to manage them using a reliable MDM protocol. With it, you can remotely manage various security settings on employees' corporate devices: change the pin code of the device, disconnect the device from synchronization with the server, assign applications by default, and also remotely erase all information from it. In the case of a force majeure situation with the employee’s personal device, you can disconnect the device from synchronization with the server in a few clicks.
However, anyone who has come up with instant push notifications knows how much they put on the server when there are hundreds of devices in sync. In order to reduce it, the server administrator can use advanced settings for push-notifications. Zextras Mobile allows you to disable instant notification, flexibly configure the lag between an event on the server and sending a notification, as well as change the frequency of ping between the device and the server.
Thus, the Zextras Mobile modular extension not only allows you to turn your Zimbra Collaboration Suite server into an accessible collaboration tool from any location, but also can increase the level of protection in the enterprise and facilitate the transition to Zimbra from other collaboration platforms. More information about him you can find on the official website of Zextras .
Anyone who has experienced the administration of the free version of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Open-Source Edition mail server knows that its interaction with mobile devices is severely limited. In fact, out of the box you can only sync emails via IMAP with your smartphone, which implies a number of inconveniences. Synchronization of such things as a global address book or calendar with mobile devices in the free version of Zimbra is possible, but rather difficult to set up and not very reliable, and on most mobile devices it simply will not work without the use of third-party applications. In order to be able to get all the functionality of the Zimbra server on mobile devices and at the same time not give access to your data to third parties,
Zextras Mobile, part of the Zextras Suite, is a modular extension that allows you to bring the server with the free Zimbra Collaboration Suite in compliance with all modern standards for working with mobile devices. It adds support for the Exhcange ActiveSync protocol to Zimbra, thanks to which it is possible to synchronize all data with mobile devices without using any third-party clients. In addition to the already mentioned calendar and contact books, users have access to public folders and shared mailboxes, as well as instant push notifications not only about incoming emails, but also about various changes in the calendar, and so on. In addition, it is possible to work with the calendar directly from a mobile device: the user can create a meeting, invite participants to it,
Zextras Mobile can also be useful for employees working at a stationary workplace. The fact is that the support of the Exhcange ActiveSync protocol adds compatibility with MS Outlook 2013 and 2016 in Zimbra. This is especially true for those companies that have decided to switch from MS Exchange to the cheaper Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Such compatibility allows you to keep the already familiar interface of the mail client in the workplaces of company employees, completely replacing the server part, and thus make the transition to Zimbra seamless and perhaps even invisible to employees.
Administrators will certainly appreciate the ease of installation and configuration of Zextras Mobile. In fact, in order for mobile synchronization to start working, it is enough for the administrator to select categories or specific users who will be able to synchronize with mobile devices, however, there are also more fine-tuning options. For example, you can enable mobile sync only for management and sales, or for everyone except top management. The important point is that several accounts can be synchronized with one device, and one account can be synchronized with several devices, which increases the number of Zextras Mobile usage scenarios.
With support for the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, the Zimbra server administrator has a lot of opportunities to increase the security of using the Zimbra Collaboration Suite on mobile gadgets. It is no secret that the devices carried outside the office, to which the working mail regularly arrives, pose a great threat to the security of commercial secrets. This means that the IT manager must not only be able to remotely disconnect a compromised smartphone remotely, but also to prevent the retrieval of data such as the password from the account from it.
Another feature that makes using Zimbra on a smartphone more secure is Mobile Password. With its help, Zimbra server administrators can create an additional password for users, which will be used exclusively for authentication using the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Such a measure will avoid intercepting the password from the Zimbra account in public wireless networks, as well as extracting the password from a lost, stolen or cracked device, in addition, if you use a strict Mobile Password policy, you will avoid having to re-enter the password from the Zimbra account on your mobile device .
If in your enterprise corporate devices are used, then with the help of Zextras Mobile, the Zimbra server administrator will be able to manage them using a reliable MDM protocol. With it, you can remotely manage various security settings on employees' corporate devices: change the pin code of the device, disconnect the device from synchronization with the server, assign applications by default, and also remotely erase all information from it. In the case of a force majeure situation with the employee’s personal device, you can disconnect the device from synchronization with the server in a few clicks.
However, anyone who has come up with instant push notifications knows how much they put on the server when there are hundreds of devices in sync. In order to reduce it, the server administrator can use advanced settings for push-notifications. Zextras Mobile allows you to disable instant notification, flexibly configure the lag between an event on the server and sending a notification, as well as change the frequency of ping between the device and the server.
Thus, the Zextras Mobile modular extension not only allows you to turn your Zimbra Collaboration Suite server into an accessible collaboration tool from any location, but also can increase the level of protection in the enterprise and facilitate the transition to Zimbra from other collaboration platforms. More information about him you can find on the official website of Zextras .