SCO Releases Server Suite for Linux

The SCO Group Tuesday at LinuxWorld unveiled SCOoffice Server, a back-office software suite aimed at small to midsize enterprises. SCO Linux 4.0, SCOoffice Mail Server 2.0, and SCOoffice Base Server comprise the offering.

The SCO Group at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo Tuesday unveiled SCOoffice Server, a back-office software suite aimed at small to midsize enterprises. SCO Linux 4.0, SCOoffice Mail Server 2.0, and SCOoffice Base Server comprise the offering.

The suite is designed to enable enterprises take advantage of Linux to easily set up, manage, and administer networks without requiring deep technical knowledge of the operating system.

“As companies turn away from Microsoft’s restrictive and costly licensing policies and look for back-office alternatives, SCO will have a low-cost suite offering that customers will find appealing,” said Louis Imershein, senior product manager of SCO Business Solutions Group. “SCOoffice Server will appeal to the SMB [small to midsize business] market for its simple, easy-to-use graphical interface, its reliability, and its cost effectiveness in running their business.”

SCOoffice Server comes with the basic functionality SCO believes a small to midsize enterprise needs to be up an running: an operating system — SCO Linux 4.0 Base Edition, a Linux distribution based on the recently released UnitedLinux; a multi-purpose Internet server — SCOoffice Base Server, for which SCO has developed an interface to configure printers, file sharing, and networks (DHCP and DNS); and a mail server — SCOoffice Mail Server 2.0, which comes preconfigured and supports mail, address book, and calendaring features for the major mail clients, including Outlook, Eudora, and sendmail.

SCOoffice Mail Server is actually a revamped and rebranded version of the company’s Volution Messaging Server and is available for purchase on its own.

As a stand-alone offering, SCOoffice Mail Server is designed to function as a collaborative environment with shared calendars, folders, discussion groups and address books. It also integrates with third-party tools, such as back-up and anti-virus solutions.

The mail server runs on OpenLinux, SCO Linux (and other UnitedLinux-based distributions), and UnixWare 7.1.x platforms.

On Wednesday SCO announced that the mail server was certified ca smart with eTrust Antivirus from Computer Associates International. The ca smart seal is CA’s way of noting solution partners that have integrated their products with CA’s software solutions to deliver business value and technological excellence.

A number of enterprises, including the City of Pacific Grove, California; Michaels — The Arts and Crafts Store; and PalletOne, are already using SCOoffice Mail Server.

SCOoffice Mail Server began shipping in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region on Monday. It will be generally available in Europe and the rest of the world starting January 27. The mail server is priced starting at $33 per mail user. A package is available for $1,398 that includes a 10-user mail server, 10-user Outlook connector, SCO Linux 4.0, and one year of support.

SCOoffice Server is scheduled to ship during the second quarter. Pricing has not yet been set.