Updates from our Data Center

Goal of this article

This article puts technical topic into a practical context and explains the decisions that matter for a reliable implementation. By the end, you should know what to prepare, how to recognize a working state and what the next useful step is.

Prerequisites

Clarify target, environment, access, ownership and validation points before changing production systems.

We recently made an important move in our infrastructure: our existing Kopano environment was fully replaced with grommunio. The decision was made deliberately, for both technical and strategic reasons. In this article, we share the reasoning behind it, our current setup, and the benefits we’ve gained from the transition.
Why the Switch?
The new hardware requirements of Kopano were no longer economically feasible for our use case. At the same time, it was clear that we wanted to continue operating a powerful and sovereign groupware solution fully under our control and on-premises. grommunio turned out to be the ideal alternative. Its architecture and user interface are very similar to Kopano, yet it is far more resource-efficient, actively developed, and maintained within the EU.
Our Current Setup at a Glance
The new groupware platform is based on grommunio and includes all core functions:
- Email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and webmail
- ActiveSync support via zPush
- Integration of external clients via IMAP/SMTP, CalDAV, and CardDAV
- Authentication via FreeIPA
- High availability through integration into our Proxmox cluster environment
- Benefits in Daily Operations
- grommunio offers a range of advantages, especially for administrators familiar with Kopano:
- Familiar interface and similar configuration
- Full data sovereignty thanks to pure on-premises operation
- Multi-tenancy, ideal for internal and external mailboxes
- Compatibility with Outlook, Thunderbird, and mobile devices (iOS/Android)
- A dashboard to support configuration and operation
- Development and support within the EU, specifically from Vienna
- Important Considerations for Implementation
Running grommunio requires solid knowledge in email infrastructure, TLS, authentication, and DNS. While grommunio provides functional documentation and an active community, the scope of support is more limited compared to larger commercial solutions like Microsoft Exchange. In particular, functionality with Outlook may vary depending on the ActiveSync version. Security updates and system maintenance are entirely the operator’s responsibility, a factor that must be considered during planning and operations.
Conclusion: A Sovereign Transition for Kopano Users.
grommunio is a modern, data-sovereign groupware solution with a familiar user experience, making it a worthwhile alternative especially for former Kopano users. It combines full control over data with strong functionality and efficient resource usage, all developed in Europe, with its headquarters in Vienna.

Production checklist

• Goal, scope and ownership are documented.
• DNS, TLS, networking, accounts and permissions are validated.
• The installation or change is verified with UI and CLI signals.
• Backup, monitoring, updates and rollback are planned before production use.
• Licensing, support paths and professional services are planned for operations.

Operations and validation

A successful installation alone is not enough for production operations. Validate services, logs, networking, login, updates, backup and recovery so that the state is repeatable and understandable for other administrators.

Practical deepening

technical topic becomes production-relevant when technology, operations and ownership are considered together. Quality does not come from isolated commands, but from repeatable decisions, clear tests and clean handover to operations.

Typical decisions

• Which operational problem should be solved?
• Which technical prerequisites must be correct first?
• How do you recognize a stable state after implementation?

In projects, we therefore do not only evaluate whether a tool works technically. The decisive question is whether it fits existing processes, security requirements, backup strategies, monitoring and support paths. That connection turns an installation into a reliable platform.