We are currently use mdaemon and we have over than 1000 box of email. mdaemon seen to rich is limit because is always crash.
We are looking for another email server, could be exchange or other, support imap, pop3, smtp, syncrhonize calendar
Did you have some mail server to suggest ?
I need the solutions are compatible with windows server solutions
~1000 Mailbox's and a Windows solution. While zimbra and google are good, I'm going to give Microsoft this one.
Exchange & Windows server are built for each other. I've seen an Exchange 2000 server still running on Windows 2000 server up until mid '09... It was only replaced because they wanted to use all the new bells and whistles in Outlook 2007!
So for that volume of users, go Exchange. Server 2008 R2 is a fantastic server OS, and Exchange 2007 will do wonders!
Things to consider with exchange: I'm going to assume that they are already running an active directory environment? Are all users located in the 1 building or spread across several... if several, what is the bandwidth like? All the users will need to use Outlook... Exchange does, however, have a nice Outlook Web Access client.
Exchange works of a MAPI protocol, so if 1000 people have outlook open, that 1000 open connections to your exchange server... make sure exchange has it's own server, and plenty of CPU and memory, not to mention storage!
Whats the budget like for this too? Licensing will be the biggest cost for exchange (next to the hardware).
You should consider Zimbra. It will do every you mentionned.
You told Antoine you need a Mircosoft solution, and if that is true, it's Exchange all the way. "imap, pop3, smtp, syncrhonize calendar", it does all that as well. There are tons of other options out, but for M$ products it is Exchange.
If you can reach out of M$, look at SmarterMail:
http://www.smartertools.com/SmarterMail/Features/Windows-Mail-Server-Software-Webmail-Exchange-Alternative.aspx
Runs on Windows just fine and it's pretty flexible.
What about google apps enterprise?
Preferred mail system/server for a company?
Nobody has mentioned this yet, but I'll throw modusMail out there for consideration as well. It's designed for Windows, is a commercially supported product, and has one of the best spam filters that I have ever seen (and they are constantly pushing down updates to the filters if you're on a support plan). It has a lot of bells and whistles out of the box and lots of options to customize it. The only downside is that the webmail application that it ships with is rather weak and does not support any sort of calendar or shared notes, etc. like Exchange does. It is available as software you can download and install or as a managed appliance you can connect to your network. It is expensive compared to some of the others mentioned but worth every penny.
Exchange will do all you need, and will give you Active Directory integration as well (which you really should be using with 1000 mailboxes). If you've nothing against using Exchange then I think this decision makes itself.
SmarterMail is honestly the most affordable and a very good solution. See the SmarterTools web site for more information. My web host runs this mail server and it's fast and works great.