Solution-01 (Final)

SOLUTION

Dovecot Pro-exclusive
Palomar Architecture

Palomar is the exclusive new architecture powering Dovecot Pro - developed over
five years and unavailable in the Dovecot Community Edition.

Why Palomar Architecture

Resilient by design

No single point of failure, thanks to a fully redundant, highly available, stateless architecture.

Elastic scalability

Easily add or remove servers on demand without disruption.

Smart routing

An independently scalable routing layer authenticates users and seamlessly load balances sessions across the platform.

Cluster-ready platform

Palomar is the only supported way to run distributed, highly available Dovecot nodes.

Multi-site ready

Palomar is designed from the ground up to support multi-site installations. Sites can be both virtual and geo-redundant.

Cloud native

Dovecot Pro provides predictable performance on object storage and linear scaling.

Flexible Storage Options

Dovecot Pro is compatible with both NFS block storage and object storage backends.

Object storage offers built-in replication and redundancy, delivering a cost-effective and reliable alternative to traditional SAN/NAS systems.

The Dovecot integration with object storage is battle-tested and production-ready, with obox mailbox storage technology first introduced over 10 years ago. It is explicitly designed for efficient use with distributed storage and combines fast local indexes with cost-efficient object storage to deliver resilient, economical and scalable email hosting.

Case Study

Object storage is the number one driver behind the cost savings providers see when they switch to Dovecot Pro.

Explore how obox helped reduce TCO of an email platform by 45%

Read the case study

Efficient Full Text Search (FTS)

Dovecot Pro’s built-in FTS means there is no need for a separate search service.

No extra infrastructure
Reduce server count and associated costs.

Simplified architecture
Mail and search run on the same scalable backends and the same scalable storage, reducing complexity and costs.

Feature-rich
Supports over 15 languages, and optionally provides attachment search with OCR scanning.

Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

Dovecot Pro provides significant TCO savings (to other solutions).

Efficient use of server resources

Intelligent separation of components

Administration tools built into the product

Support for object storage

Demonstrably lower TCO

By switching from Dovecot Community
Edition to Dovecot Pro,
Rackspace achieved:

45%
reduction in overall total cost of ownership (TCO)

3x
reduction in combined product OPEX and CAPEX

25%
lower total product costs

Fully Featured Solution

Dovecot Pro is a complete fully featured solution for an email provider. This means predictable total cost of ownership without unforeseen costs. There is no need to build related capabilities - they come pre-built and fully supported.

Archiving

Unified Quota with other storage-consuming applications in your platform

Integration Tools

for existing systems such as auth and identity management as well as APIs to connect with existing monitoring, support, customer service, and other systems.

Migration Tools

Dovecot dsync transparently migrates mailbox content and metadata on live systems, allowing a full pre-sync of the system without any end user impact during the user cut-over.

Lawful Intercept

supports the interception of IMAP and POP3 protocol events, LMTP deliveries, appended messages, and more. Direct Integration with Lawful Intercept vendor APIs, or the intercepted data can be exported to local disks or object storage.

Unrivaled Security

Multi-layered code security
Peer reviews, static analysis, third-party audits, and a bug bounty program reduce the likelihood of vulnerabilities.

Data protection
At-rest encryption and on-the-wire encryption safeguard sensitive information across all connections. All major encryption and security standards are supported.

Strong authentication
Variety of authentication features supported, including support for OAUTH2 and OX Abuse Shield.

Memory-safe architecture
Dovecot Pro’s innovative memory management system substantially mitigates memory safety concerns, which are prevalent causes of vulnerabilities in essential Internet services.

Enterprise Support and SLAs

Support

Dovecot Pro delivers proven reliability through superior engineering and enterprise-grade support services.

Premium Support: Direct Access to the Experts

Security by design, not by chance
Faster resolution times with enterprise SLAs.

Proactive guidance
Upgrades, scaling, and best practices to future-proof your mail platform.

Always on
24/7 availability to keep critical services running.

Rapid escalation
Tailored paths for quick, effective issue resolution.

Enterprise-Level SLAs

With Dovecot Pro, uptime isn’t just a promise - it’s guaranteed through enterprise-grade Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Seamless upgrades

Palomar architecture enables zero-downtime maintenance, keeping users connected while systems stay secure and up to date.

Privilege/Process Separation

Security by design, not by chance
Dovecot’s architecture is rooted in privilege separation: each service runs independently, with the lowest permissions required for its role. This layered defense means a vulnerability in one process cannot compromise the entire system—delivering unmatched security and peace of mind.

Dovecot’s legendary design puts security first
Built on a strict multi-process architecture, Dovecot isolates each function of the mail service into its own process, running only with the minimum privileges it needs. This uncompromising approach ensures that even if one component is exposed, the rest of the system remains secure.

Engineered for uncompromising security
With Dovecot, every function of the mail service runs in its own tightly controlled process. This separation of privileges ensures that no single vulnerability can threaten the system as a whole—giving organizations a trusted, resilient foundation for secure communication.

Despite much effort and thoroughly all-encompassing approach, the [...] testers only managed to assert the excellent security- standing of Dovecot ...

... thus translating to an exceptionally good outcome for Dovecot, and a true testament to the fact that keeping security promises is at the core of the Dovecot development and operations....

It is noticeable that Dovecot has already received a lot of scrutiny regarding its code security. For a complex piece of software that Dovecot constitutes, it is an extremely rare result to stand strong with so few problems...

Source: Mozilla Foundation Security Audit

Fits your infrastructure

Flexible by design, Dovecot Pro works
within your current ecosystem.

Deployment Options

Dovecot Pro runs on both bare-metal and cloud, with its stateless design ensuring zero-downtime - its components can be upgraded or serviced without disrupting end-user availability.

Storage Options

With Dovecot Pro you have the choice of cloud or local storage. NFS block storageb and object storage are supported. CTA “Explore storage options ->” Link to the Flexible Storage Options part

Customer Interface Options

Dovecot Pro can be used on its own or together with OX App Suite (link to App Suite website), our cloud-based, white-label productivity platform.

Seamlessly integrated, the combination delivers key features that enhance both user experience and productivity, including push notifications, automatically tabbed inboxes, shared mailboxes, and automatic calendar processing, plus many more advanced features for flexibility and control.

Additionally, OX Abuse Shield (link to OX Abuse Shield website), our security solution for comprehensive protection against authentication abuse across applications, is pre-integrated as part of both Dovecot Pro and OX App Suite. Together, Dovecot Pro and OX App Suite have a proven track record, powering tens of millions of mailboxes worldwide.

Ready to scale your email
infrastructure with confidence?

Talk to our experts and see how Dovecot Pro can fit
your platform.

Get a quote

Part of Open-Xchange

Dovecot Pro-exclusivePalomar Architecture

Why Palomar Architecture

Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

Fully Featured Solution

Unrivaled Security

Dovecot Pro-exclusive
Palomar Architecture