Zextras Apply to the Partner Program

Move Beyond Legacy Collaboration

Struggling to Sell Zimbra?
Start Scaling with Carbonio.

Deliver a modern collaboration experience with a partner-first business model and seamless migration paths for your existing customers.

See why you can't keep relying on Zimbra →

the reality

Six Reasons Selling Zimbra Is Getting Harder.

01

Roadmap uncertainty

Long-term commitment conversations are getting uncomfortable.

02

A platform that's stayed where it was

Customers want chat, video, files, mobile — built in, not bolted on.

03

Multi-tenancy that wasn't built for service delivery

Running at scale means workarounds.

04

Compliance pressure without sharper answers

NIS2. DORA. GDPR. The stack isn't keeping up.

05

Operational overhead that won't come down

Maintenance and dependencies eating into margin.

06

Channel terms drifting

The relationship that made the practice work no longer fits.

Zimbra still works. The question is whether it's the platform you bet your practice on for the next ten years.
For some partners, the answer is becoming clear.
↓

The alternative

Meet Carbonio - the All-In-One Private Digital Workplace

Trusted by organizations who demand security, control, and digital sovereignty.
Built by Zextras — European, privately owned, and committed to a partner-exclusive model.

Built on familiar ground

Ubuntu and RHEL. Standard open-source administration. CLI-first tooling. Your team's expertise transfers.

Complete by default

Email, chat, video, files, co-editing, native mobile apps. One platform. One support surface.

Built for service delivery

Native multi-tenancy. Service mesh architecture. Automation-ready.

Sovereign by design

European-owned. On-premises, partner-hosted, or hybrid.

Under the hood

One unified platform. Not a stitched stack.

Carbonio runs as a coordinated service mesh — discovery, health checks, and dynamic scaling, all built in.

  • Fewer integration needs — less surface area to maintain, less to break.
  • Faster deployments — automation-ready architecture, designed to ship.
  • Predictable failover — health-driven, automatic, no scripted firefighting.
  • One support contract — instead of vendor sprawl across add-ons.
SERVICE MESH Mail Calendar · Contacts Chat Group · 1:1 Meetings Video · Rooms CARBONIO CORE Files Co-editing Mobile iOS · Android Multi-tenant White-label
THE RIGHT FIT

Carbonio Is Built for Partners Like You.

If your practice runs on technical depth, services revenue, and customers who care about sovereignty — you're who Carbonio was built for.

✓
You run Zimbra deployments — or comparable open source workplace stacks — for customers who chose you for technical depth, not for hyperscaler convenience.
✓
Your customers ask sovereignty, jurisdiction, and compliance questions. You need sharper answers.
✓
You sell expertise and managed services. Thin reseller margins aren't your model.
✓
You need a platform you can commit to for the next decade — not the next two years.

Side by side comparison

Carbonio vs. Zimbra: Where the Differences Show.

Feature parity isn't the conversation. The conversation is what each capability gap costs your practice — in deals lost, services overhead, and audit risk.

20+ capabilities Carbonio offers that Zimbra doesn't
1 unified platform — chat, video, files, mobile,
co-editing included by default
0 add-on integrations to license, support, or stitch together
1

What you can sell

Capability Carbonio Zimbra
Native chat, video, files, co-editing ✓Built into the core platform ✗Add-ons or external integrations
Native iOS and Android apps ✓First-party, multi-identity ✗LimitedNo native chat / video / files apps
External meeting links, waiting rooms, moderation ✓Yes ✗No
Custom and prepared meeting rooms ✓With scheduling ✗No
Multiple meeting moderators ✓Yes ✗No
White-label and multi-tenancy ✓Native ✗Workarounds required
2

What you have to support

Capability Carbonio Zimbra
Per-user active mail replica ✓Granular per-user replication ✗PartialMulti-node and backup only — no per-user active replica
Infrastructure and version-agnostic restore ✓Yes ✗No
Real-time backup with live database scan ✓Yes ✓Yes
Object/blob storage + S3-compatible + Scality ✓Yes ✗Scality not supported
3

What you can defend in compliance conversations

Capability Carbonio Zimbra
2FA on every web surface ✓Web client and mobile apps ✗Limited — Modern Web App only
2FA QR code support for mobile apps ✓Yes ✗No
Multiple IdPs per infrastructure ✓Different providers per domain ✗No
Domain-level SAML authentication ✓Yes ✗No
European ownership ✓Privately owned, European ✗Depends on current vendor situation

Stitching chat and video alongside Zimbra cost us deals to customers who wanted everything in one place. Moving to Carbonio meant one platform, one contract, and a sales conversation that finally matched what buyers were actually asking for.

— Technical Director, mid-market MSP

Migration without disruption

Migrate Existing Zimbra Customers to Carbonio seamlessly.

PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 PHASE 4 Z Source environment Existing Zimbra deployment Operational C Parallel Carbonio Provisioned alongside source Tooling-driven sync Controlled cutover Phased by group, department, or batch Business continuity Live on Carbonio Source decommissioned on your timeline Managed services live End-user experience stays familiar throughout. Minimal retraining friction.
Parallel-environment cutover, designed for business continuity.
Migrates with tooling

What's preserved

Mailboxes, folders, metadata, calendars, contacts, distribution lists, shared folders, and customizations.

Needs assessment

What's scoped during planning

Custom integrations, non-standard auth, heavy customizations, bespoke compliance setups.

How it runs

Cutover model

Parallel-environment, phased cutover. Business continuity throughout. End-user experience stays familiar.

Partner support

You're not running this alone

Migration tooling, partner documentation, and direct engineering access from Zextras.

Deployment size Engagement shape
Under 1,000 mailboxes Defined short-cycle engagement
1,000 – 10,000 mailboxes Structured multi-phase project
10,000+ mailboxes Planned program with staged cutover

Migration is billable. And it grows the practice.

Migration projects are revenue-generating engagements that shorten sales cycles and expand your services book.

We expected the move to Carbonio to be the hardest part. It became the most structured billable engagement we'd run in years — and the customers who came across thanked us for it.

— Operations Lead, EU-based MSP
See why partners are choosing Carbonio →

Our partner commitment

Carbonio is built around an Exclusive Partner Ecosystem.

0

Channel conflict

Sold exclusively through partners. No Zextras direct sales. No SaaS tier letting customers bypass you.

100%

Recurring revenue model

Subscription plus services. Predictable income. Expanding deal size as your practice grows.

5–10

Year roadmap commitment

Privately owned, profitable, structurally committed to the channel. No PE rollup. No hyperscaler exit.

Win more deals

Deal registration that protects your accounts

Your pipeline is yours. Margin scales with the practice you build.

Deliver with confidence

Real enablement, real support

Training, certification, sandbox access, and engineering enablement — all part of the program.

Grow with the channel

Benefits that scale as you do

Partner resources, sales leads, and growth opportunities you unlock as you progress through the program tiers.

What sold us on Carbonio wasn't the comparison sheet. It was that Zextras has no direct team competing with us, and no SaaS that lets customers go around us. That's the conversation we needed to have.

— Managing Director, MSP serving regulated verticals
Meet the vendor behind the platform →

why trust us

Zextras is the Partner-First Vendor Behind Carbonio.

01

Privately owned since 2011

Independent. Long roadmap. No PE rollup, no hyperscaler exit.

02

European-owned

Sovereignty isn't a marketing angle — it's how Zextras is structured.

03

Partner-exclusive go-to-market

The channel isn't one of several routes. It's the only route.

04

Specialized in this customer profile

Built for regulated verticals, sovereignty-sensitive customers, specialized MSPs.

05

Proven at scale

Enterprise, public sector, MSPs. Globally deployed.

06

100M+ users worldwide

Zextras technology serves more than 100 million users globally — across regulated, public-sector, and telecom environments.

FAQs

Common Questions From Partners Like You.

Zimbra still works — why change?

It does. The question is whether the platform direction is something you want to bet your practice on for the next decade.

Is Carbonio just a newer version of Zimbra?

No. Carbonio is an independent platform built by Zextras with its own architecture and roadmap. Your team is productive on it quickly because it runs on the Linux foundations your engineers already know.

How disruptive is migration for our customers?

Parallel-environment cutover. Mailboxes, calendars, contacts, shared folders, distribution lists, and most customizations migrate with tooling. End-user experience stays familiar.

Will my engineers need months of retraining?

If your team knows Linux workplace stacks, the curve is weeks. Training and certification are part of partner enablement.

How is Carbonio better for service providers specifically?

Native multi-tenancy. Service mesh architecture. Built for MSP service delivery, not retrofitted from single-tenant.

Is there a direct sales motion or SaaS tier I should worry about?

No. Sold exclusively through partners. No Zextras-hosted SaaS competing with your service delivery.

What's the cost picture for our customers?

Lower operational overhead, fewer integrations to license, single support contract. TCO consistently beats Zimbra-plus-add-ons — before factoring in services revenue.

Take the next step

Apply to the Zextras Partner Program.

Build your practice on a partner-first platform. The program is open to system integrators, MSPs, cloud hosters, value-added resellers, and IT consultancies serving compliance-driven and security-sensitive customers.