Presentation¶

SMBs and ITC¶

About 99% of companies in the world are small and medium businesses (SMBs). They generate more than half of the global GPD. SMBs constantly look for ways to reduce costs and increase productivity, especially in times of crisis like the one we are currently facing. However, they often operate under very limited budgets and limited workforces. These circumstances make it extremely challenging to offer suitable solutions that bring important benefits, at the same time keeping investments and operational costs within budget.

Perhaps these are the reasons why, being a huge market with almost unlimited potential, technology vendors have traditionally shown little interest in developing solutions that adapt to the needs of SMBs. In general, enterprise solutions available on the market have been developed for large corporations and therefore their implementation requires considerable investments of time and resources, as well as a high level of expertise.

In the server market, this has meant that until now SMBs have had few solutions to choose from and in addition, the available solutions have usually been over-sized. Considering the real needs of SMBs - too complex to manage and with high licensing costs.

In this context it seems reasonable to consider Linux as a more attractive SMB server alternative, since technically it has shown very high quality and functionality, and the acquisition price is unbeatable. However, the presence of Linux in SMB environments is symbolic and the growth is relatively small. How is this possible?

We believe that the reason why this happens is simple: to adapt an enterprise level server to an SMB environment, the components must be well integrated and easy to manage. Similarly, the ICT service providers that work for SMBs also need server solutions, that require low deployment and maintenance time to stay competitive. Traditional Linux server distributions don’t offer these characteristics.

Zentyal Linux Server¶

Zentyal [1] was developed with the aim of bringing Linux closer to SMBs and to allow them to make the most of its potential as a corporate server. It is the open source alternative to Microsoft network infrastructure products aimed at SMBs (Windows Small Business Server, Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Forefront...) and it is based on the popular Ubuntu distribution. Zentyal allows IT professionals to manage all network services such as Internet access, network security, resource sharing, network infrastructure or communications in an easy way via one single platform.

Example of a deployment where Zentyal acts as office server and gateway

During its development, the focus has been specially on the usability. Zentyal offers an intuitive interface, that includes the most frequently needed features. Although there are also other methods to carry out all kinds of advanced configurations. Another important feature is that Zentyal incorporates independent applications into fully integrated functions, automating most tasks. This is done to provide time savings for the system administration.

Given that human error (80%), security (57%) and complexity (44%) are mentioned as the top three causes of unplanned system downtime [2], Zentyal is a solution that is not only easier to manage, but also more secure and reliable. To sum up, besides offering significant savings, Zentyal improves security and availability of network services within the companies.

The Zentyal development began in 2004 and it has grown to become a widely used and highly recognised solution. The platform integrates over 30 open source systems and network management tools into a single technology. Zentyal has been included in Ubuntu since 2007. Currently Zentyal is downloaded over 1,000 times every day and has an active community of thousands of members.

There are tens of thousands of active Zentyal installations, mainly in America and Europe, although its use is extended to virtually every country on earth. The US, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Russia are the countries with most installations. Zentyal is mainly used in SMBs, but also in other environments such as schools, governments, hospitals and even in prestigious institutions such as NASA.

Zentyal is full-featured Linux server that can be used for free without technical support, commercial features or updates, or with a full feature set, commercial updates and support for a reasonable fee (yearly subscriptions start from 195€/server). Special pricing for Government, NGOs and Education is available. To get a customized offer, please visit the Get Offer section at zentyal.com [3].

In case that customers want to count on support from a local IT provider to deploy a Zentyal-based system, they can contact Authorized Zentyal Partners. These partners are local IT support and service providers, consultants or managed service providers that offer consultancy, deployment, support and/or outsourcing of infrastructure and network services of their customers. To find the closest Zentyal Partner, or to learn how to become a partner, please visit the Partner section at zentyal.com [4].

Zentyal offers to the Authorized Zentyal Partners a series of tools and services that help at reducing the maintenance costs of IT infrastructure of their customers and offering managed services with high added value:

• Support platform
• Training and certification of technical and sales staff
• Sales materials
• Discounts

This documentation describes the main technical features of Zentyal, helping you to understand the way you can configure different network services with Zentyal and become productive when managing corporate ICT infrastructure with Linux based systems.

The documentation is divided into six sections, plus some appendices. This first introductory section will help you to understand the context of Zentyal as well as the installation process, and it walks you through the first steps required to use the system. The following four sections explain, in detail, the four typical installation profiles: Zentyal as a network infrastructure server, as a server giving access to the Internet or Gateway, as a domain and directory server or as a communications server. This differentiation into four functional groups exists to facilitate the most typical Zentyal deployments. However, it is also possible to deploy any combination of Zentyal server functionality with no limits other than those imposed by the hardware on which it is installed and the use made of the server.

The Maintenance section guides you through the most common system administrator tasks. It will provide you information about the tools and services to carry out and make easier the maintenance of a Zentyal server, ensuring its smooth running, system optimization, troubleshooting and resolution of incidents and upgrading.

Finally, the appendices provide useful information to assist with the deployment of Zentyal within a virtualized environment. They also contain descriptions on how to configure some of the most typical deployment scenarios.