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IM making the switch…

Well after years using multi-protocol chat programs like Adium to access my Hotmail, Yahoo!, .Mac and Jabber accounts I’ve made the switch to a ‘pure’ XMPP (Jabber) chat client. At the moment that’s Psi as it’s multi-platform running on Mac, Windows and Linux.  I’ll be recommending it to clients when they sign up to our new hosted XMPP service ClearIM.

So you’re wondering if I’ve ditched my buddies on networks like MSN and Yahoo!, well no I haven’t. That’s because I’m using the Cleartext ClearIM service public IM gateways to connect to the ‘legacy’ networks that the big brands are still running. This means all my chat, whatever network it’s coming from or going to, is being routed via ClearIM, it’s being archived as well, online, isn’t that neat

With multi-protocol desktop clients you don’t get the benefit of single ‘pipe’ for IM that can add processes like archiving or content filtering, you’re tied to a desktop solution. This also means that I can run XMPP software like ProcessOne’s OneTeam on my iPhone, no need for a multi-protocol app or multiple apps to handle all my buddies when I’m mobile.

If you’re interested in how all this works or how you can get a similar setup contact me via the Cleartext web site or leave a comment here.

Tags: hosting, IM, jabber, SaaS, services, xmpp

Gartner on THE merger of the month

Well in IT security anyway. It seems that some of the gartner analysts are also concerned about Symantecs MessageLabs acquisition, inferring that email security technologies will stagnate.

This is a bit off the mark for two reasons, the first in my earlier post re: PC Tools Threat Expert and the second that MessageLabs hasn’t been that innovative in email security for a while, preferring to buy or license rather than build.

Source: SC Magazine.

Tags: MessageLabs, SaaS, Security, symantec

‘MessageLabs Buy a Headache for Symantec?’

It’s good to see that some other people hold similar views to me about the Symantec acquisition of MessageLabs, see the similary titled article on internetnews.com. Also David Ferris of Ferris Research (specialist messaging analyst) says that MessageLabs technology is “no longer leading edge.”

There’s no denying that MessageLabs have a good core service, but they’ve made some questionable roadmap decisions, buying OmniPod a proprietary IM platform, and OEM’img archiving from Fortiva and business continuity from MessageOne. Yes it’s true that we (Cleartext) OEM our core platform, but at least that is a single unified true SaaS platform.

Both of these are good solutions in their own right, but why buy when these types of solutions are relatively simple to build, after all they are ‘just’ email/data managment systems, far simpler to build than their core anti-spam and anti-virus services.

Tags: cleartext, MessageLabs, SaaS, symantec

re:MessageLabs Launches Premium Associate Program

It’s good to see that one of our competitors, Messagelabs, is playing catch up with their channel program;

‘The program adds multi-year commissions to the Standard Associate program providing partners the opportunity to accrue additional revenue by up-selling and renewing current customers’

Cleartext’s program has had multi-year commissions for a while now, it’s definitely hotting up in the SaaS (Cleartext) and Managed Service Provider (MessageLabs) type of markets. They’ll be catching up with the technology soon and adding BATV!

Tags: MessageLabs, SaaS