* Noteworthy news from INBOX East
The INBOX East show, held Nov. 17-19 in Atlanta, had its share of interesting announcements from a variety of vendors (including some news that simply coincided with the period of the event). Here are a few of the more interesting announcements:
* Lessons from Enron e-mail database
Audiotrieve CEO Roger Matus, during a session entitled “Monsters in Your Mailbox – An Enron Case Study,” discussed the results of his company’s study of Enron’s e-mail. About 92% of Enron’s e-mail database was made public by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and it revealed some interesting – and frightening – information: According to Audotrieve, 8% of the e-mails contained personal information about individuals, such as medications that were used by Enron employees, while another 4% contained things like offensive racial comments and pornography.
The findings of Audiotrieve’s study, at the very least, should prompt e-mail administrators and IT managers to undertake a study of the e-mail content for which they are responsible. Because a significant portion of e-mail – like Enron’s – might run afoul of many federal regulations and could result in employee lawsuits, such a review is definitely warranted.
* Hosted messaging provider guarantees 100% Exchange uptime
Ceryx, a provider of hosted Microsoft Exchange 2003 services based in Toronto, announced its 100% uptime guarantee. The company uses real-time replication between two data centers and other technology to achieve what it claims is the first 100% uptime guarantee for a hosted service. The company also offers messaging continuity services for in-house e-mail systems to improve overall system reliability.
While there continues to be significant resistance to hosted messaging services, the addition of a 100% availability guarantee might be enough to convince at least a few potential holdouts to consider a hosted messaging alternative.
* SPF creator shows off his latest e-mail system
The prototype of Meng Wong’s new e-mail system was introduced at INBOX, where interoperability with several vendors’ offerings was also demonstrated. This system holds promise for dramatically reducing spam because it is designed to natively authenticate e-mail senders and it employs reputation information at its core. Wong’s credentials are well known in the e-mail industry because of his creation of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication system.
Wong’s latest system is important because, while it may not dramatically alter the messaging system landscape in the near term, it raises the bar for the expectations of what e-mail may become.
* Cloudmark announces trade up initiative against competitors
Cloudmark announced a trade-up program in which it will offer its services at no charge for the duration of any competitors’ anti-spam solutions subscription.
In my opinion, this represents a maturation of the messaging security market. The fact that a leading provider of messaging security solutions is offering a promotional upgrade means that price competition will intensify in this market.
