Sendmail Inc.,
whose products are used by many Internet providers for handling e-mail
delivery, Monday released Sendmail Pro, its first commercial product.
Built on open source software, Sendmail Pro features a variety of
enhancements, services and support. Through its acquisition of Sendmail for
NT from MetaInfo Inc., the company plans to unite Sendmail Pro and Sendmail
for NT into a new product scheduled to ship next spring.
Among the tools Sendmail Pro offers are:
- Ready-to-use binary installation of sendmail, the Sendmail Pro
browser interface and a wizard for creating new sendmail
configuration files.
- Web-based graphical configuration tools for updating existing
configurations.
- Graphical reporting and day-to-day management tools for
administrative tasks.
- Anti-spam integration to reduce the cost of controlling
unsolicited mail.
- Context-sensitive online help
- Commercial packaging, documentation, service and support.
Sendmail will offer four levels of support and service, from free 30-day
warranty to a premium annual package, beginning at at
$120,000. Sendmail Pro is priced at $1,298 for a single processor,
unlimited user license. Quantity discounts are provided for multiple
processor licenses.
The company’s upgrade strategy includes an e-commerce site, telesales and
field sales. A variety of companies, including Sun Microsystems, Red Hat
Linux, SGI, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, are bundling the software with
their products. More than 40 international distributors and systems
integrators worldwide plan to join Sendmail’s channel program via the
acquisition of MetaInfo’s
Sendmail for NT, including Dell, Intergraph and Motorola. Sendmail Pro has
an installed base of more than 1.5 million existing users.
“To respond to the diverse needs of sendmail’s diverse user community, we
formed Sendmail earlier this year,” said Eric
Allman, chief technology officer of Sendmail, Inc. and author of sendmail.
“For some, open source software is great, as long it continues to be
maintained and improved, as it has been for many years and will be in the
future. For commercial users, ease-of-use features
and services that reduce the need for internal support are becoming
necessities. It’s an idea whose time has come,” said Allman.
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