Synchronize iCal Calendars
It lacks a central server or domain-based authentication. It has no availability browsing. Until recently, it only worked on local networks. Why even review a calendaring product with the limitations of BusySync?
Because despite it's lack of enterprise-level features, BusySync works the way many administrators wish iCal Server had. It's simple for end users, elegant in execution, and provides read/write access to iCal calendars with little configuration. While it's not a feasible solution in larger environments, for a small company or independent department BusySync could very well be the perfect calendaring solution.
When installed on each client machine, the BusySync configuration options appear in System Preferences. The "Publish" pane allows users to select which calendars are shared, whether they can be written to, and if they're password protected. For Leopard users, it also allows the use of SSL to secure calendar connections. The "Subscribe" pane lets users see the available calendars on their network, choose which they'd like access to, and when they last synced with them. There's even a single password field, with read or write access determined by which password is used. By sharing out user calendars from a central "server" machine, you can implement an additional layer of management control and redundancy as well.
Despite it's modest feature set, BusySync functions beautifully, allowing users to share and edit iCal data quickly and seamlessly. For a team too small to invest in iCal Server, it's an easy, intuitive, and low-maintenance method for collaborative calendaring.
Update: Since our initial review, Leopard 10.5.2 has broken BusySync severely, leaving users unsure when and if their calendars were syncing properly. While sympathetic, BusyMac were unable to implement an effective workaround to the issue. Fortunately, the more recent 10.5.4 update seems to have squashed the SyncServices bugs that had rendered BusySync unusable.
BusySync retails for $19.95 per-user.
