Welsh council goes open source

Carmarthenshire County Council is to deploy an open source email system

A Welsh council plans to use open source software to centralise the email usage of its primary and secondary schools.

Open source specialist and integrator Sirius Corporation said this week that it has been appointed to build a system with the potential to host a mailbox for every student and teacher in Carmarthenshire, some 40,000 users.

Carmarthenshire County Council's ICT Development Centre currently provides internet and email facilities to 15 secondary schools and 125 primary schools.

The new open source system will use a simple web-based interface to help reduce the pressure on staff when creating and managing new accounts.

Council administrators will also be able to monitor usage levels and block emails on-the-fly if they contain inappropriate content.

Carmarthenshire has over 9,000 employees who provide services to a population of 170,000.

Giles Nunn, ISP officer at the council, said: "We looked at a number of proprietary solutions to develop our current email system but they simply weren't scalable or were just too expensive.

"The open source email solution was not only the most technically advanced but offered the lowest total cost of ownership."

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