Scalix Ports Messaging Software to zSeries-Linux

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Not everyone needs full-blown (some might say overblown) groupware, which is why companies like Scalix exist. Messaging is a continuum of functions, ranging from simple mail to e-mail and calendaring and up to full groupware and collaboration. And some people just want a great client that can be Web-based or client-based that can do e-mail and calendaring. That's why porting the Scalix server to the zSeries mainframe running Linux in its logical partitions makes sense.

To that end, Scalix has worked with IBM to port its new Scalix 9.1 release to the zSeries. I know what you're thinking: why on earth would IBM do that when it has its Notes/Domino groupware on the high end and is trying to stir up interest in its Workplace and WebSphere alternative? According to Julie Hanna Farris, Scalix founder and chief strategy officer, mainframe shops are no different from other shops, in that not everyone wants the deep functionality of Lotus/Domino or the difficulty of supporting Microsoft's Exchange Server, even though they do need to integrate with Microsoft's various Outlook e-mail and calendaring clients. And IBM, being a realist, knows it needs solutions like Scalix on its Linux partitions in order to offer those mainframe shops an inexpensive alternative to Exchange.

Scalix is based on Hewlett-Packard's OpenMail program, which the company created for its HP-UX Unix servers and which has a huge installed base. HP killed off OpenMail in early 2001, and Scalix licensed the program, ported it to Linux, and has been making improvements to it since that time and gaining the backing of venture capitalists, who hope to make some money on its efforts. Last May, Mohr Davidow Ventures pumped in $6 million in funding, bringing the total outside investment in Scalix to $19.2 million. In June, the company rolled out Scalix 9.0, which supported integration with Microsoft's Outlook 2003 and the open-source Ximian Evolution client, now owned by Novell. Scalix 9.0 also featured the Scalix Web Access client, which can be used to provide Webmail access from either Internet Explorer or Mozilla/Firefox browsers. Scalix had already supported earlier Outlook clients with its software, as well as Eudora, Entourage, Mozilla Mail, and the integrated mail features of BlackBerry handhelds. Scalix 9.0 was the first release of the software to support Novell's SUSE Linux; prior releases only ran on Red Hat Linux.

With Scalix 9.1, which was announced in October 2004, Hanna Farris says that the company is raising the bar in both Outlook support and Webmail client functionality in addition to the zSeries support. With approximately 75 percent of corporate desktops using one version or another of Outlook for mail or calendaring, deep and seamless integration with Outlook is vital. Hanna Farris says that competitors of Scalix all claim to support Outlook in this deep manner, but she says they can't, because what they are doing is converting from an IMAP, a messaging and calendaring protocol for Linux e-mail programs, to MAPI, the Windows API for e-mail and calendaring. Scalix has implemented a native MAPI protocol in its Scalix Connect for Outlook client and the Scalix Server. This means Scalix does not do the IMAP-to-MAPI conversion, which always results in some feature or function being lost. As far as Outlook is concerned, Scalix is Exchange Server. On the Webmail front, with the 9.1 release, Scalix has created a Webmail client written in DHTML, XML, and SOAP that has no client-side programming at all and that, according to Hanna Farris, offers desktop-client grade functionality, including drop and drag functions (which are tricky to program into Web browser applications).

Scalix 9.1 will be available for the zSeries mainframes on Red Hat's Enterprise Linux 3 and Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 before the end of the first quarter of 2005. The company is shipping an evaluation version of the code on Red Hat Linux now, if you can't wait. The Scalix server is running in 31-bit mode (as most applications do on the mainframe), but Scalix is recommending that companies get the 64-bit versions of Linux for their mainframe partitions so they can take advantage of larger memory spaces. The zSeries and other mainframes are not exactly known for being speed demons on the CPU, but they have giant I/O pipes. E-mail processing is a heavy-I/O workload, and for this reason Scalix expects its messaging server to perform quite well on the mainframe. The company is running performance tests now, and while it won't say how far it will scale on the zSeries, it will say that the program is inherently more scalable than Notes/Domino, because it is not a monolithic application, but is coded to run as a bunch of separate processes.

Mainframe shops have a few decades of experience in using logical partitions and have seen several waves of data center and server consolidation, and the CIOs and CFOs at these companies want to cut back on the number of machines they have in the field supporting e-mail without having to change one thing that users see on their desktops. They want to consolidate as many workloads as makes sense back on the mainframe and to drive those mainframe resources at close to 100 percent utilization, which something you can't do with an unvirtualized collection of Windows boxes running Exchange servers. For the most part, the delivery of Scalix 9.1 for the zSeries mainframe is aimed at the mainframe installed base, says Hanna Farris, but IBM is also looking for the Scalix support as a means of bringing some new customers into the zSeries fold.

"zSeries support is a very big deal for us, and we have been making significant investments for some time in the effort," says Hanna Farris. "As a young company, you have to be focused and smart about the opportunities you chase."

It's important not to be greedy and turn off your prospective market, too. And that is why Scalix is charging the same price for mainframe shops ($60 per seat) as it does for its e-mail servers running on other kinds of Linux platforms.