Carmarthenshire Council deploys open source e-mail system

Carmarthenshire County Council has deployed an open source e-mail system for all schools covered by the council.

The rollout is believed to be the UK's largest Open Source e-mail system to 15 secondary schools and 125 primary schools and is providing 40,000 children in the region with web-based e-mail access.

Developed by Sirius, a European Open Source services provider, the e-mail system is based on a a bi-lingual e-mail portal.

Pupils and teachers now have access to three different versions of the system depending on age group. For example, primary school children use e-mail through a simple interface, whilst secondary school pupils use more advanced features. All users have access to webmail in both English and Welsh.

Staff will manage the e-mail system using the open sourse GOSA, the same tool deployed by Specsavers in their transition to Open Source software. This offers a way to import data and control sending and receiving email messages from unauthorised users.