Comparison of different small business servers?

[robb]

I was wondering if there is a whitepaper or something similar of Zentyal compared with other small business server flavours like SME, Clear ans especialy: MS SBS.

Has anyone numbers on available services, performance etc available?
I think with it would be of great value selling Zentyal based environments if such a report can prove zentyal will save a bundle to a school or small company.

If no such whitepaper exists, is there anyone willing to make such comparison? Can Ebox technologies participate in this?

[nachico]

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

[robb]

Hello nachico,

For me your post is ABSOLUTLY superb news. I am heavily involved in OLPC in the Netherlands. The organisation I am connected with has recently finished an OLPC project in Senegal deploying XS schoolserver and 100 OLPC XO 1.5's

Personaly I am not too happy with XS schoolserver and hope Zentyal can take over all services XS schoolserver is offering.

As for small companies: I think a comparison with MSSBS would be a good idea. It could convince them to go for Zentyal instead of Microsoft. It sure would help because numbers tell more than I can ever say. And why should a customer believe my claim that Zentyal costs less and performs better if I don't have any numbers?

Thnx for the response
Rob

[Josep]

Comparing Ubuntu/Zentyal with Microsoft SBS is complex. Microsoft SBS may come bundled with some offerings from HP, which may set a very low entry price. Nevermind the CALs, they will come in at a later time after the purchasing decision was taken. Also, small companies want their only server to be used as a database server for their accounting systems, normally Windows-only. You can't compete there. I'd rather position Zentyal as a cheaper than Windows system that can play nice with their existing SBS and offer everything else (VPN, Email server, Proxy, etc).

[robb]

Nevermind the CALs, they will come in at a later time after the purchasing decision was taken.

That's where we are for to point decision makers on those extra costs.
And as far 'black-box' or Windows only software solutions: a lot of SMB's will need some sort of CRM (customer relation management) and D/CMS (document/content management system) available to run their business. There are so many opensource solutions for these tasks: like OpenERP, SugarCRM etc... for CMS: Joomla, Drupal, Plone, Alfresco etc...

If they are already 'vendor-locked-in' possibilities of changing to opensource should be considered. Not that they MUST go to open source, but just show the alternatives!.

In the end: money talks and if you can save them 20, 30 maybe 40% of their ICT costs it should be possible to at least convince some clients to go all the way with open source.

So, I still think a comparison of MS SBS and Zentyal should be undertaken so you can proove your claims of zentyal being cheaper, more stable and more fexible.

[nachico]

I agree that comparing Ubuntu/Zentyal with Microsoft SBS is complex, but this is the case with any two products that are not designed to be pure replicas. However, Zentyal serves many use cases similar to Microsoft SBS and I believe the comparison is more than fair.

You could also say that Zentyal should be compared to Cisco routers, Check Point firewalls, Untangle UTM or Alcatel VoIP switchboard, as it offers some of its functionality and it can be a substitutive in some cases (we have done so for some customers). But I believe Zentyal can be a very good alternative for a more important base of MS SBS users.

It is true it does not have supported, well-integrated ERP/CRM/CMS solutions, but these can be installed easily as it is Ubuntu-based and we do provide support for its integration if required by customers/partners. And as you pointed out, Zentyal has the advantage of integrating many other network features that MS SBS does not.

Anyway, Zentyal is not an alternative for every MS SBS user, but it brings great advantages and costs savings for a large part of them. CALs are a very important share in total savings, but not the only one. The subscription vs license model, the flexibility brought by the integration of network features, the need of less powerful hardware and the cloud services to reduce maintenance and downtime, altogether make a much lower total cost of ownership. Our estimations are that, depending on the case, Zentyal can be over 50% cheaper than MS SBS during the server life cycle. However, it is not too credible if we are the ones claiming so ;-)

So, I do think it makes a lot of sense and anyone carrying out such benchmarking will have our total support.