Sun Java Communications Suite 5 Deployment Planning Guide

Calendar Server Overview

Sun Java System Calendar Server is a high-performance, Internet standards-based calendar server designed with the scalability to meet the needs of customers ranging from medium- and large-sized enterprises to even the largest telecommunication and Internet service providers. Through a Web browser interface or connectors to other calendar clients, including Microsoft Outlook, Calendar Server provides group scheduling and personal calendaring to consumers at home or at work, while enabling them to share calendar information with others over the Internet.

Calendar Server provides one of the industry’s most open, interoperable, and high-performance time and resource management solutions. Through its scalability, performance, and reliability, it provides the features you require at a lower total cost of ownership than alternative solutions. Native support for iCalendar standards enables users to schedule events in a format that is easily shared across the Internet. Calendar Server employs standards and protocols such as:

The Calendar Server architecture is flexible, extensible, and scalable both vertically (by increasing the number of CPUs per system) and horizontally (by introducing additional servers into the network). As a result, Calendar Server can be thought of as a system of servers that can be configured to fit a variety of needs. It can remain in isolation as a standalone calendar server, or it can be configured with many instances, having the various services duplicated or split between them.

Calendar Server makes use of plugins to obtain external services. Calendar Server also supports both LDAP- and identity-based deployments, and integrates with Sun Java System Access Manager, Sun Java System Portal Server, and Sun Java System Instant Messaging to provide additional functionality.

Calendar Server provides the following benefits:

For more information on Calendar Server concepts, see the Sun Java System Calendar Server 6.3 Administration Guide.