July 19, 2007

FEATURE EDITORIAL

Google Apps Gets A Boost

The announcement last week of Google's latest acquisition confirms the company's desire to cater to the SMB market with eyes towards the enterprise. Unless you were on vacation or hunkered down in your cubicle, the news of the US$625 million cash deal of Postini was released Monday, July 9.

Postini, a company that offers security and corporate compliance solutions for email, IM, and other Web-based communications, was one of the first Google Apps partners.

More than 1,000 small businesses a day sign up for Google Apps, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs & Spreadsheets, and Personal Start Page, and like Postini is a hosted service. But in a blog, Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager for Google Enterprise notes, "Larger enterprises face a challenge: though they want to deliver simple, useful hosted applications to their employees, they're also required to support complex business rules, information security mandates, and an array of legal and corporate compliance issues. In effect, many businesses use legacy systems not because they are the best for their users, but because they are able to support complex business rules." Girouard believes this isn't a trade-off that businesses should have to make. "By adding Postini products to Google's technology, businesses no longer have to choose -- employees get the intuitive products they want, and the company achieves the security and assurance it needs," says Girouard.

Postini currently serves more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users. "Postini's founding vision is to bring to market technology solutions that address enterprise messaging problems in a different way. Our on-demand offering liberates businesses from the burdens associated with traditional on-premise solutions. We are proud of what we have done to achieve our vision on behalf of our customers, and combining Google and Postini is a powerful next step in this creative journey," said Scott Petry, founder, chief technical officer, and executive vice president of product development for Postini in a prepared statement. Postini solutions include Email Security, IM Security, Web Security, Message Archiving, Message Encryption, and Policy-enforced TLS.

Upon acquisition completion, Postini will become a wholly owned subsidiary. Both Postini and Google note Postini's customers and products will continue to be supported.

FTC Holds Spam Summit

Last week, the FTC held a two-day public event on July 11 and 12, in Washington, DC. Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions conference brought together experts from business, government, and technology sectors, consumer advocates, and academics to explore consumer protection issues surrounding spam, phishing and malware.

The summit was developed as a follow-on to the Commission's 2003 Spam Forum, with an updated review on the status of spam, malware and phishing. Topics included analyzing malicious spam, shifts in spamming incentives and tactics, strategies for protecting consumers and businesses, and countermeasures for stopping malicious spammers and cybercriminals.

Many of the companies and organizations regularly featured in Messaging News participated in panels to offer expert opinion and thought leadership. A few include: Jim Fenton, distinguished engineer for Cisco, Dave Champine, senior director product marketing for Cloudmark, Inc., Trevor Hughes, executive director of Email Sender & Provider Coalition, Patrick Peterson, vice president technology for IronPort Systems, Charles Stiles, chairman of Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), Craig Spiezle, director, online safety strategies and technologies for Microsoft Corporation and Dave Lewis, vice president, market and product strategy for StrongMailSystems, Inc.

More on the spam summit can be found in the next issue of Messaging News, available next month.

Teneros Honored as Partner of the Year By Microsoft

This week Teneros announced that it has won the Partner of the Year Award for OEM Hardware, Device Manufacturing at the 2007 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Program Awards. The company was chosen out of top Microsoft Partners for delivering market-leading customer solutions built on Microsoft technology. The awards were distributed at a ceremony on July 11 in Denver, Colo. at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

"Microsoft's award for our Application Continuity Appliances that protect business-critical Microsoft Exchange communications is one of the company's most significant achievements since it was founded," said Teneros CEO Steve Lewis. "Microsoft is the undisputed leader in the corporate email market and we are focused 100 percent on assuring 24X7 email uptime to the thousands of companies worldwide that rely on Microsoft Exchange. We are honored to receive this award because it validates our technology and demonstrates the demand for a cost-effective, plug-and-go appliance to guarantee email continuity."

Messaging News CASE STUDY BRIEF:

WIND Launches New Web 2.0 Email Experience with Critical Path's Memova Messaging

Critical Path, Inc., a provider of messaging software and services, today announced that Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A (WIND), Italy's leading operator of integrated fixed-mobile-Internet communications services, is rolling out Memova Messaging 8.0 – the latest version of Critical Path's consumer messaging platform for broadband and mobile service providers. The platform will provide powerful new Web mail features for WIND's Libero subscribers.

WIND's portal, www.Libero.it, is Italy's number one email service provider and hosts the country's largest Internet community with more than 12 million active members. With Memova Messaging 8.0, Libero email services will provide an enhanced user experience that leverages the latest in Web 2.0 technology. In addition, Memova Messaging offers a number of value-added services that WIND can deploy on the Libero portal in the future. These services include community-based multimedia file sharing, a contact-centric communications console, network address book services, integrated VoIP services and more. Currently the new Libero email services are available only to a limited number of beta users. WIND expects to upgrade all Libero users to the Memova Messaging platform by the end of 2007.

We welcome your ideas and your news for Messaging Newswire’s News & Trends in Email Security. Let us know what you think by sending your comments to editorial@messagingnews.com. Written or compiled by Stephanie Jordan. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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