Open-source-based @Mail offers ISPs (and customers) an extremely user-friendly interface—plus the option of running the solution as a webmail client, a wireless client, or a full e-mail server.

by Jeff Goldman [August 4, 2004]

CalaCode was initially founded in 2000, as NetBased Software Pty Ltd, in order to create a shopping cart solution called ElectricShop. Ben Duncan, the company's founder, then took CalaCode to a new level—by going camping. He gathered some developer friends and a camper van, and they drove around the coastline of Australia developing the first version of @Mail as they travelled.

That attitude towards the process of software development has stuck around, says Corey Bisaillon, CalaCode's U.S. representative. "Ben evolved a neat company philosophy that was centered around having a good time in the process of getting it all done," Bisaillon says. "He's got a really cool approach to development and to business."

@Mail 877-4-ATMAIL (877-428-6245) sales@calacode.com

The company itself remains relatively small, despite the fact that it now maintains offices in both Kurrajong, Australia and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "We're about ten people altogether," Bisaillon says. "There's two of us here in the United States, and about eight people in Australia. Ben Duncan is 23, and he's very much what you would imagine in a whiz kid computer guru."

The strongest selling points for @Mail, Bisaillon says, are the interface itself and the code behind it. "It's better looking than any other webmail interface," he says. "But what makes IT directors and CIOs buy it is that they take a look at the code, and they can see how clean it is. It's just a very well-written and very well-thought-out application. When you look at it under a microscope, the quality is just evident."

Client and server
The @Mail solution is available as a webmail client that will work with any existing POP3/IMAP server, as a wireless e-mail client, or as a complete e-mail server solution. "In server mode, @Mail comes bundled with a custom build of Exim, which includes MySQL support-which is paramount in preventing large volumes of spam," Bisaillon says.

Most people, Bisaillon says, choose to purchase the full e-mail server rather than just the webmail client. ISPs can use the server mode to gain functionality that isn't enabled by the webmail client. "In client mode, you don't have the benefit of our anti-virus and the sub-admin module," he says.

All pricing for @Mail is listed on the web site, which allows you to select the precise portfolio of tools you need. "It's all broken down into a modular pricing structure where you buy the base software package, and then add licensing and modules for different functionality," Bisaillon says.

A new version, v4.0, was recently released, and includes a long list of new features and upgrades. "One of the coolest things, which no other webmail system has, to the best of my knowledge, is right-click context for objects in the webmail interface," Bisaillon says. "We've got our own right-click menu for all of the folders—you can test drive it at demo.atmail.com."

Scalability and functionality
The product's scalability, Bisaillon says, is one of its greatest strengths. "It's so scalable, it's really only limited by the type of hardware you have," he says. "We have one customer who's got a cluster of three web servers and two dedicated database servers, and they just passed 900,000 mailboxes—so we're going to go over a million soon."

Another strength comes from the fact that @Mail is based largely on open-source solutions, including Exim, Apache, Courier, and Perl. "Tying together those technologies, you benefit from the experience of all the developers around the world that have contributed to those products," Bisaillon says. "So you're not paying for us to develop everything from scratch, then still have it suck—and you can quote me on that!"

Lance Bickle is the e-mail administrator at Nex-Tech, the ISP subsidiary of Rural Telephone. The company decided to replace its prior e-mail solution a few months ago—Bickle searched the Web for options, and came across @Mail. "I got a copy of the software and installed it here and did some playing around with it, and we were really impressed with it," he says.

The migration to @Mail, Bickle says, was extremely straightforward. "They came to our location and set everything up; they migrated and converted all of our current accounts," he says. "We were able to sit down with them, with the people that actually wrote it, and change whatever we wanted. They actually added a couple of features —customizations that we wanted—and they did it all right there in front of us."

Since then, he says, he's been very happy with the solution. "They've been really great folks to work with, and they've got a really good product on their hands," Bickle says. "There are many more things that we have the ability to do now that we couldn't do with the previous product—unless we wanted to pay $50,000 more."

— End

Related articles:
	[April 21, 2004]	A Frequently E-Mailed Question
	[Feb. 10, 2003]	Mail Server With League-Leading Value
	[Sept. 27, 2002]	NetZero Unleashes WebMail

Online resource:
	Webmail Directory