*Kerio Mail Server has been renamed Kerio Connect. Many new features have been added since the time this entry was written.

One of the few drawbacks to using a Mac in a business environment has been the lack of a solid, business class groupware email, calendar, and contacts solution.  With the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6), Apple has introduced built in support for Exchange, but for small businesses who are concerned about cost of deployment, and maintaining the solution once it has been deployed, Exchange is not always the best choice.  Why should an all Mac office deploy a Windows server just for email?

Two years ago, when I left Apple to become an Apple Consultant, I was introduced to Kerio Mail Server by the new company that I was working for.  I was impressed that my email, contacts, and calendars could easily be synced between my Mac, and any other computer that I wanted to configure with my Kerio account.  In the Summer of 2008, Kerio added full iPhone support which allowed my contacts, and calendars to stay synced with my Mac.  If I ever found myself without access to my Mac, or my iPhone, Kerio Mail Server’s webmail feature had everything that I needed.  All of my contacts, calendars, and email were there.

Although I have worked with a lot of customers who run all Mac offices, most have been a mix and Mac and Windows PCs.  Mac OS X Server provides a really great email solution, but it doesn’t have a true cross platform groupware features.  That’s where Kerio Mail Server comes in.  For small businesses who need cross platform groupware features, Kerio Mail Server (KMS) is a great solution.  Kerio Mail Server runs on Mac OS X Server, Windows Server, and on Linux.  It has full support for Open Directory, and Active Directory, and it allows businesses to run LDAP services on one kind of server (Mac or Windows), and Kerio Mail Server on another server.  One deployment that I worked on involved setting up Mac OS X Server with KMS, but the user accounts were stored in Active Directory on a Windows Server.  This enabled the customer to easily integrate Mac OS X Server into their network without having to make major changes to their existing server/network configuration.

The cost of deployment is always a major concern for small businesses. [Comparison Chart]  This is another reason why Kerio Mail Server is a great choice.  For 50 users, the minimum licensing cost for Kerio Mail Server is $1299.  The same amount of users in Exchange 2007 will cost your business over $5000.  Depending upon your server and workstation configurations, you could also be facing additional client access license (CAL) costs which is a problem that does not exist with Mac OS X Server.  Mac OS X Server includes licensing for unlimited users.

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For years, Mac users in business have languished without a good, business class email solution.  Exchange compatibility in some form has existed on the Mac for quite sometime.  However, I.T. departments often don’t know how to get Exchange to work properly with Macs, or they are unwilling to make changes to accommodate Mac users.  Entourage, which is part of Microsoft Office for the Mac, includes Exchange compatibility, but it requires more configuration than Outlook.  Most of the time, the I.T. staff has no idea how to properly configure Entourage to take full advantage of Exchange, and all of its groupware features.  Even when Entourage is configured with all of the necessary LDAP information, there are often features missing from the product due to a company’s unique security requirements, or server configuration .  Access to Kerio Mail Server can be configured on numerous email clients on the Mac.  Apple’s own Mail app that is included in Mac OS X works very well with Kerio Mail Server, as does Microsoft Entourage.  Apple’s Address Book app, and iCal work very well with KMS.  There is no complicated setup process, and Kerio Mail Server includes auto configuration scripts for Entourage, and iCal.  For contacts syncing, Kerio Mail Server provides the Kerio Sync Connector to ensure that contacts stay synced between your Mac, smartphone, webmail, and other computers that you choose to setup.  Kerio Mail Server (soon to be renamed Kerio Connect) will support CardDav, which was recently introduced  into Mac OS X.  Kerio Mail Server supports iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Palm smartphones to allow access to email, contacts, and calendars from anywhere.  Let’s not forget Windows, of course.  Kerio Mail Server works great with Microsoft Outlook.

For administrators, KMS offers easy installation and updating, as well as easy management, and maintenance.  The installation process for KMS averages about 2 minutes, and updates can be performed while the server is actively serving clients.  If you need to migrate from Exchange to KMS, Kerio provides an Exchange migration tool which will move all of your users from Exchange to Kerio Mail Server, including all of their email, contacts, and calendars.  Kerio also provides a tool to migrate users from IMAP email systems.  KMS includes built in backup and archiving, and can be bundled with anti-virus software built in.  Administrators will have some great anti-spam tools at their disposal.  KMS can be administrated remotely using a web interface, or by using the Kerio admin console that can be downloaded from Kerio’s website.  The admin console is included in every KMS install.  If you need support, Kerio offers some of the best phone support that I have ever received.  Their techs are extremely knowledgeable, and they are always willing to give advice on how to find the best configuration for your needs.  There is also a growing number of Kerio resellers, and support providers throughout the U.S.  who can setup your new Kerio Mail Server, and offer onsite support when you need help.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about Kerio Mail Server.

Beta 3 of Kerio Connect 7 (renamed from Kerio Mail Server) from Kerio Technologies, Inc. now supports CardDav.  Snow Leopard users can now rejoice that fully native contacts synching is on the way.

When Snow Leopard released on August 28th, Kerio Mail Server was not fully compatible with Snow Leopard.  I have always enthusiastically upgraded to the latest version of Mac OS X on the date of the release, so when I found out that KMS was not going to support Snow Leopard, that was a major drawback.  Although email was unaffected, Kerio Mail Server was not compatible with the new version of iCal in Snow Leopard.  Anyone who upgraded to Snow Leopard found out afterward that their Kerio hosted calendar was read only in iCal, and could not be managed in iCal.  Users needed to either modify their calendar from webmail, or use another device such as their iPhone.  Kerio followed up with an update (6.7.2) less than a month later.  The update fixed the compatibility issue with iCal.  With Snow Leopard, Apple introduced CardDav into Address Book.  Along with CardDav, Apple also added an updated native Exchange synching feature in Address Book.  This broke the ability for Address Book to synch with Kerio Mail Server through ‘Exchange’ synching.  Snow Leopard users would need to use the Kerio Sync Connector instead, which is a separate add-on that needs to be installed, and later, manually updated each time that there is a Kerio Mail Server update.  Kerio Sync Connector will synchronize the user’s contacts and  calendars with the Kerio server automatically.  Calendar synching can also be handled through CalDav instead of using the Kerio Sync Connector.   Computer geeks like myself don’t have a problem with updating software on a regular basis.  However, non-savvy users will often put off downloading updates, which over time, will lead to synchronization problems.

My goal as a Kerio Mail Server administrator has always been to use a deployment solution that does not require the end user to download and install an update each time that Kerio Mail Server is updated.  This is why I try not to use the Kerio Sync Connector, and instead, use the native ‘Exchange’ synching in Address Book for Macs running Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), or earlier.  For Macs running Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), the Kerio Sync Connector has been the best way to synch contacts with the server.  With the release of Kerio Connect 7 beta 3,  Kerio has introduced native CardDav synching into their product.  This will eliminate the need to use a separate add-on.  Contacts will stay synchronized as long as the computer is connected to the network.

Although Apple has made a huge improvement in Exchange support for the Mac, Kerio Mail Server remains to be the best solution for small and medium businesses who need groupware features such as server hosted shared contacts, and calendars.  Kerio Mail Server supports all three of the major computing platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux).  My own email host, Get Sync’d, is using Kerio Mail Server to provide their customers with business class email service.  In mixed computing environments, Mac users and Windows users can collaborate seamlessly.  Often Mac users are made to live with little to no collaborative features when using email that is hosted an Exchange server.  This is due in part to the I.T. staff not knowing how to properly setup Exchange on the Mac, but also because Macs have lacked the native ability to tap into all of the features of Exchange.  Apple has brought native Exchange compatibility to the Mac, but only for Exchange 2007.  Kerio Mail Server brings all of the collaborative features of Exchange to the Mac with an easier setup process, and at a lower overall cost.  Kerio Mail Server is perfect for small and medium businesses since the cost of setting up an in house mail server running Kerio Mail Server is considerably less than deploying Exchange.  If your business does not need an in house mail server, Kerio hosting providers such as Rocket Fast, and  Get Sync’d are a great choice.  These providers can take the headache out of managing your email, and free you to concentrate on growing your business.  If you’re a home user, and you own your own domain name, having your email hosted by a Kerio hosting provider is a great way to maintain your email address even when you’re switching from one Internet service provider to another.  You won’t have to give up your email address just because you’ve grown tired of your ISP.

If you have a server available to use for testing, I suggest that you download, and check out Kerio Mail Server, or the new Kerio Connect beta.  Kerio allows a limited time test drive of Kerio Mail Server.  You will love the fast, and easy setup (2 minute install), and the ease of administration.  Kerio Mail Server has full support for Open Directory, and Active Directory.  It runs on Mac OS X Server, Windows Server, and Linux.  You can even run Kerio Mail Server on client versions of Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, but you won’t have the ability to tap into Open Directory and Active Directory.  As with any beta, Kerio Connect should not be deployed on a production server.