Re: Zimbra + IMAP

["Robert M. Thompson" <ab5602@wayne.edu>]

Hi Steve,

We are also currently in the process of investigating Zimbra to replace our current Mirapoint install.  I don't think IMAP would kill your Zimbra setup, but I don't have any direct experience with high-volume Zimbra+IMAP either.  IMAP is a relatively light protocol and fairly efficient at allowing remote access to email.  Currently, we support IMAP for around 35,000 users with Mirapoint and see fairly heavy use with minimal impact to our servers.

However, with respect to IMAP+Zimbra, I can offer a few pointers:

 1) Supporting only IMAPS (Secure IMAP) from the start, and not allowing standard IMAP connections will save you the nightmare of having to transition IMAP users to IMAPS in the future.  As Internet security concerns rise, we are facing with the massive problem of turning off our IMAP services in favor of IMAPS.  It is especially hard since the majority of our users have non-secure IMAP "programmed" into their client configs.

 2) I think that the functionality of the Zimbra web interface will naturally draw users away from IMAP.  Currently, our WebMail interface is a bit lacking, so our users tend to look to IMAP-based desktop clients to fill in the gaps.

Hope this helps!
-Rob

-- 
Rob Thompson, Systems Analyst
Enterprise Applications
Computing & Information Technology
Wayne State University
313-577-5645


----- "Steve Hillman" <hillman@sfu.ca> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>   We've been having discussions at our site about how best to step
> around the issue of supporting IMAP on Zimbra. Our current system
> (pre-Zimbra) supports IMAP, but we've traditionally been a POP site,
> and more recently a Webmail site (primarily for students). Our Webmail
> system uses POP, so it doesn't integrate with IMAP.
> 
> But that all changes with Zimbra - it can provide much more seamless
> integration -- too seamless! Users will want to use it if they
> discover it. One of our developers was at Zimbra Admin training last
> month where it was pointed out that Zimbra doesn't scale that well for
> large numbers of IMAP users. So we're wondering what other sites are
> doing -- are you supporting much IMAP? (if so, how much, and are you
> seeing scaling issues?) If not, have you actually disabled it,
> actively discouraged it, or just not telling people about it?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Steve Hillman                                IT Architect
> hillman@sfu.ca                               IT Infrastructure
> 778-782-3960                                 Simon Fraser University
> Sent from Zimbra