Thanks for your suggestion.
Linux Format, on their June 2010 issue, published a
comparison of 7 Linux firewalls, including ClearOS and Zentyal (then called eBox Platform). They chose eBox as the best (disclaimer: we learned from their comparison once they published it, not before, so we had absolutely no influence on their verdict
), though ClearOS came close together too.
The Register also published three articles last year analysing
Zentyal,
ClearOS and
SME Server. However, at least on Zentyal's review, their analysis was somehow shallow and sometimes based on wrong assumptions, which obviously got to somehow wrong conclusions.
And finally, and in a more informal way, this year there was a post describing
some impressions about Zentyal.
Regarding the two case studies you propose (schools and small companies), we, as a vendor, are actively working on both of them. Regarding schools, although we have several success stories, the most important is the School 2.0 program, aimed at providing schools in Spain with one notebook per child and evolve learning methods to make the most of Internet-based technologies and contents. Zentyal is the server that is being
deployed in some pioneering regions to guarantee quality and secure access to the Internet. Based on our experience, we are currently working in a bundle (hardware, software, configuration and services) for schools that could be distributed through our partner network.
Regarding small companies, a couple of months ago we announced the
availability of a SOHO bundle (a solution integrating hardware, software and services for very small offices at a very low cost) as a prototype and we are running it in a few customers. If the prototype is successful we will distribute it through our partner network too.
So, that's the current status. Obviously we are glad to help in working on a whitepaper comparing several small business servers. We could offer at least support to help setting up the benchmark with Zentyal and carrying out the tests.
Cheers