Earlier this week, Kerio Technologies released Kerio Mailserver 6.6 (US$499), a new version of the cross-platform groupware server. The new version adds a tool for migrating users and data from Microsoft Exchange Server, as well as the ability to schedule resources, making it more comparable with Exchange in terms of services. The server is available for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and other OS, and supports several different client platforms.

Kerio MailServer 6.6 includes the Kerio Exchange Migration Tool, an application that transfers users accounts and folders, domains, public and private address books, tasks, and more from Exchange Server 5.5, 2000, 2003 and 2007 to Kerio Mail Server 6.6.

"Everything that is stored on the Exchange server is moved to the Kerio Mail Server," a spokesperson said.

The Migration Tool also gives you the option of not moving some user accounts. The company said that the Tool can move 800 groupware items every minute.

Kerio Exchange Migration Tool runs on a Windows XP client on the network. The Kerio Mail Server can be running on any supported platform.

Resource scheduling is an other major new feature. Before version 6.6, Kerio Mail Server offered only calendaring, including for smart phones and iPhones. With the new version, users can subscribe to a public calendar assigned to the resource to check availability of the resource. A resource can be anything shared with a group, such as a meeting room, a company car, or audio/visual equipment. An administrator can limit who can book a resource.

Kerio Mail Server's resource scheduling available directly from Microsoft Outlook on Windows, Entourage on Mac OS X, and iCal on Mac OS X. Resource scheduling also works through Kerio Webmail. When scheduling resources through iCal, users will need to name the resource, which is not necessary with Entourage. An Autoconfiguration Tool for iCal (which uses the CalDAV protocol) configures the iCal client to work with Kerio Mail Server, It downloads a configuration script and configures iCal automatically.

Version 6.6 also adds support for html email, so that Windows mobile users can view email as html. iPhone users can get html email and can open and view attachments.

Kerio Mail Server 6.5, released earlier in the year, also increased compatibility of Outlook and iCal. In July, Kerio added native support for iPhone push email, push contacts and push calendar as well as remote wipe. Kerio MailServer uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol for syncing email, contacts and calendars with iPhones.

If you've tried Kerio Mail Server