March 3, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Server Open-Xchange will cater for 1 million plus Internet email accounts of web hosting provider 1&1, the company announced recently. The news provides a boost for the company’s objective to compete with Microsoft and be recognized as a viable alternative to Microsoft's Exchange email application. The terms of the Open-Xchange arrangement with 1&1 Internet were not revealed.
1&1 does not expect the transition to the Open-Xchange platform to create issues and customers can buy the new services as an extension of an existing hosting agreement, or as a ‘stand alone’ product. Open-Xchange will first provide hosted email and collaboration for 1&1 customers in Germany before catering for customers in other countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
"1&1 has a home-grown webmail infrastructure that they will continue to use," explained Open-Xchange’s CFO and General Manager of Americas, Mr. Paul Sterne. "No migration is required because Open-Xchange sits on top of the existing webmail infrastructure and simply adds functionality in terms of shared, secure email, calendar, contacts, tasks and Infostore, which includes document sharing/versioning/locking, knowledge entries and bookmarks."
"We predict a rapid worldwide transition from the current paradigm of webmail bundled with a hosted website to enterprise-class groupware based on an AJAX front-end bundled with a hosted web site," added Mr. Sterne. "Any web hoster who does not make the transition will be competitively challenged."
