ExchangeDefender MSP Alerts
Thanks to so many of you that participated in our ExchangeDefender 7 preview last week. The beta is a week or two away and we are still putting some finishing touches on the features that will ship down the road after the initial core launch of Security, Continuity and Compliance. Today we have an open ended question regarding one of the features and we hope you take a moment to let us know what you think.
If there was a single value proposition we are making in ExchangeDefender 7 it’s the managed aspect. You are no longer subscribing to a tool, you are getting a service that protects the most important tool businesses have on the Internet. Without email, the company may as well take a day off.
We are building in a MSP interface to ExchangeDefender that will monitor all servers protected by us. Every 15 minutes we will poll your email server from all of our data centers and if nothing can connect to it, we will issue an alert.
Question: When should we notify you?
We are aiming to create a configurable alert system on top of the service so it can notify you if 4 consecutive tests have failed (in this scenario, we couldn’t reach your server for an hour) or we can issue an alert every time we cannot connect to your mail server. We don’t know what’s right – if too many alerts are sent, will the alerts be ignored. Likewise, if too few alerts are sent will you be finding out about an issue from your client?
We initially intend to make alerts available via email and SMS and through professional RMM services tools LPI and Kaseya and PSA from Autotask and Shockey Monkey.
If you have a suggestion please login to https://support.ownwebnow.com and click on Resources > Features and create a new Feature request. ExchangeDefender 7 is 100% based on the feedback from the new feature request category filled out by our partners, keep on using it if you want the product to fit you better!
ExchangeDefender 7 & Managed Messaging
Later this week I will be sending invitations for an exclusive webinar covering ExchangeDefender 7. We will be doing a preview on March 17th, beta the week after that and full ExchangeDefender 7 release roughly 2-4 weeks after that depending on how broken things are. The beta window is very open and we will not ship it until it is perfect.
I, however, wanted to offer you a direct update on how things are going at Own Web Now because we are getting a ton of praise but also some concerns about the changes we are making and how the marketplace in general is developing. In particular, I wanted to address the areas of our service that are not perfect and what we are doing to address them:
1) Phone Support – The good news is that we have a lot of new staff to help you around the clock. We also have more personnel dedicated to the portal operations and one frustration many of you have experienced is our VoIP service. There have been reports of bad call quality, extensions not working, phones ringing dead in Australia and so on. We’ve made adjustments to all of these areas and I hope you’ll start to see significant improvement here.
2) NOC Alerts – We have been asked over and over again to provide an email feed in addition to the NOC blog postings. I want to make it clear that we will never do that. However, we will soon start delivering service alerts via SMS, online service monitor as well as to your RMM and PSA software. We simply have to have a failsafe way of contacting you and email is just not the way to deliver service alerts. This will probably be the biggest improvement that will come from the Managed Messaging part of our product that will be available across our products.
3) Client Software Support – Typically, this has not been an issue but we have gotten some louder requests for help with Outlook troubleshooting, DNS troubleshooting and connection troubleshooting. This part of the service is not something that Own Web Now is responsible for, workstation side of the management is our service providers responsibility. Since we make all our revenues with our partners, I have always encouraged my support staff to go above and beyond when the partners encounter an issue in the field but there is a limit to that as well.
4) Client Training – This is an area that we will dedicate a lot of our resources to going forward. We (all of us) simply must do a better job helping the clients understand all the failovers and redundancies that are built into the system and how to use them. Anyone that honestly expects a Microsoft environment to be foolproof and have a 100% reliability, respectfully, must not have been around Microsoft software for more than a month. Every month we deal with a slew of security and performance patches released by Microsoft along with a ton of other vendor partners that are continuously releasing security and bug fixes. Keeping this entire infrastructure at an optimal level is a job (for a lot of folks) that work around the clock testing, deploying, managing and addressing problems. Outsourcing the email infrastructure does not mean those problems are eliminated, it just means someone else (Own Web Now) is dealing with them around the clock. We all have a vested interest in helping our clients understand the many failsafes and alternatives in the system and I can honestly tell you that we’ve spent and incredible amount of money to make sure that email is always available.
I appreciate the feedback, good or bad, at all times and encourage you to keep it coming.
We’ve been working extremely hard on ExchangeDefender 7 and the Managed Messaging and all the support infrastructure behind it (Exchange 2010, Shockey Monkey… yes, even SharePoint). I hope you like what you see in 10 days, all but 3 feature requests have made it into ExchangeDefender 7 UI and the feature board is blank!!!
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
Rolling out Outbound-JR
On Thursday, February 10th, 5 PM EST we will be discontinuing access to outbound-xd servers as noted in the previous blog posts and emails. While many people have already switched their mail flow to outbound-jr.exchangedefender.com, some may still be using our legacy systems that are being decommissioned. Please take a look at all the servers in your organization and make sure you’re routing your email appropriately:
outbound.exchangedefender.com – used for personal non-automated emails that require absolutely highest IP reputation.
outbound-jr.exchangedefender.com – used for server notifications, NDR, out-of-office responses, automated messages, confirmations, devices (fax machines, etc) and non-groupware servers.
ExchangeDefender outbound network will continue to work as-is. The new JR network is designed to fit the emerging need among our client base as email communication matures and the need to tie in all servers, applications and notifications becomes necessary. By being able to “shape” this traffic, we can better assure your email delivery.
Please note, outbound-jr does not impact your ability to use LiveArchive as the replication of all the mail you receive is not done by the outbound servers. It also does not impact your ability to send out attachments, encrypted messages so on and so forth.
We look forward to announcing the new products and services that are being built around the outbound-jr and we hope that you’ll find them extremely valuable (large file sharing, notification services, on-demand mailing lists, marketing mail services, etc).
ExchangeDefender Outbound JR
We are very excited to introduce another product to the ExchangeDefender outbound network:
Outbound JR is a new highly-redundant high-speed outbound SMTP network designed to quickly deliver automated messages and system notifications.
The way email is sent and processed has changed over the years as we have become more dependent on it. It is used for conversations, receipts, marketing, monitoring, file sharing and more. The more that people rely on a communication system the more attractive it becomes for spammers and hackers – and SPAM filters that serve to protect those networks.
In the recent years we have seen many email providers adopt an “IP Reputation List” process of filtering SPAM. Protocols such as DCC, Pyzor, Razor and other checksum houses monitor the volume of real mail coming from systems and adjust their SPAM scores according to the likelihood that the message is SPAM. If we only receive SPAM from one IP address we are more likely to believe that the next message will be SPAM as well, so additional scrutiny is placed by organizations that by design don’t trust one another over SMTP.
Technical jargon aside, it has become impossible to assure quick delivery of real mail when it’s accompanied by all the legitimate junk: marketing, newsletter subscriptions, out of office responses, read mail receipts, delivery notifications, etc. Organizations that insist on sending automated notifications at the same time as they carry on regular conversations impact their reputation and can often cause false positives to happen.
The Solution
ExchangeDefender is now offering Outbound JR as an additional gateway for automated mail. This way you can send your notification and system management mail through a different gateway and help improve the IP reputation. By enabling our partners to help clients tie in their systems to the proper way of email delivery, we hope we can improve everyone’s email experience.
What can I not use it for?
You may not use this system for anything that violates our AUP. Outbound JR is not a system that can be used for unsolicited email, junk mail, viruses or any other violation of our Acceptable Use Policy or Terms of Service.
What can I use it for?
You can use Outbound JR if you need to send:
- Out of office responses
- Delivery receipts, read receipts, postmaster notifications
- High volume email services for network monitoring (Kaseya, LPI, etc) or support ticket notifications (Shockey Monkey, ConnectWise)
- High volume receipts, mailing lists, distribution groups, web site notifications, event invitations, etc.
Great, what else do I need to know?
First, the implementation. Just change your outbound SMTP relay to outbound-jr.exchangedefender.com
You will notice that this is a redundant network and it is designed for speed. You will still be able to send encrypted email through it and use all the functionality of ExchangeDefender with the exception of LiveArchive archiving of outbound mail. Your inbound mail will still be archived free of charge with LiveArchive, but your outbound mail will not.
This is the compromise we had to make in order to make the system lightning fast.
What now?
Evaluate your usage patterns and start moving your clients to outbound-jr.
We will start contacting our partners that will have to move to this system if they are sending a lot of automated messages or marketing mail to this new system.
We believe this new addition to our portfolio will help our clients with the choice of being able to route system notifications, marketing messages as well as human-to-human email more efficiently.
Thank you for using ExchangeDefender!
Oh, by the way – it’s free. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
Preparing for Disasters
The entire United States is snowed in, with the exception of Florida which is experiencing drought and wildfires. On the other side of the world, east coast of Australia is expecting major floods. No matter where you live, the weather is trying to get in a way of work.
Just because the weather is not cooperating does not mean you are down. All it takes is a lot of planning a few tips and tricks and some process. Join us for an hour of success stories and secrets our partners have shared with us about how their services have helped their clients continue working.
Thursday, January 13th, 1 PM EST
Is this just a major pitch for ExchangeDefender? Not really – naturally we spend most of our time talking to our partners about ExchangeDefender and how it helps them manage and plan for unforeseen events such as the ones caused by the weather. Reality is that regardless of the disaster, some common sense practices can put you at a major advantage and most of those practices are developed when you go through an outage.
We want to share some of the ideas, tips and tricks – along with some forms and promotional collateral – that has made us and our partners successful.
But since you asked about ExchangeDefender…
We have two really popular pieces in ExchangeDefender that our partners win deals with over and over again.
LiveArchive is an Exchange 2010 replica server that sits in our data center and replicates all inbound and outbound mail in a spare Exchange 2010 mailbox that your clients can access at any time. When their servers go down or Outlook crashes, they can just login at https://livearchive.exchangedefender.com and continue working. Best part – no maintenance! The LiveArchive is always on, no configuration or management needed. More info.
FailPOP is new for 2011 and built on a massive POP3/IMAP/SSL infrastructure. It’s created when you add ExchangeDefender users and they are provisioned at the time the account is created. When disaster strikes all you have to do is power on your profile and it becomes your new mail server – all free and built into ExchangeDefender. I know you may wonder: But isn’t LiveArchive better? It depends. LiveArchive has up to a year of your users mail already on and is powered by Microsoft OWA 2010. But FailPOP can be used for extended outages and accessed quickly and easily from mobile devices as well as desktop software without using webmail. More info.
The biggest part of our partners success is not ExchangeDefender – it’s planning the implementation and educating clients on how to take advantage of it. Tomorrow, we hope to share some of the tips and tricks with you.
Please sign up for the webinar and we’ll email you the collateral: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/641992257
The recording will be posted here shortly after the webcast but since you’re snowed in – we’ll do our best to entertain you and keep you warm!
Introducing ExchangeDefender Essentials
Last week we announced our messaging portfolio for 2011. If you missed it, the recording along with the webinar and podcast is now available.
Did you miss the webinar? Here is the recording:
Webinar Recording (wmv movie 45 Minutes)
Webinar Slide Deck (pdf)
Webinar Podcast (mp3 higher quality audio)
The biggest news of the day was ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging, combining all the services necessary to go to the cloud in one affordable package. The second biggest announcement was regarding CloudBlock. Finally, we wanted to plug a hole in our product portfolio that was dictated by the marketplace.
Why?
ExchangeDefender was designed as an all-inclusive solution: protecting you from SPAM, providing business continuity, archiving mail for easy access via LiveArchive, delivering web file sharing functionality as well as web filtering. We felt that we had to protect the client entirely because if we left a hole in the security portfolio the client could be easily exploited.
Our competition saw all of these “necessities” as ways to earn a quick profit. By offering bare bones product and getting people that shopped on price they could easily mark up add-ons as the clients realized they needed them.
It’s important to note that not all companies are made the same and not all IT departments design their networks in the same way. Some have appliances for web filtering, some rely on third party services for web file sharing, others have appliances for archiving purposes. How the network is designed is largely up to the IT department and the specific company needs where some ExchangeDefender features may feel superfluous. This is something that many of our service providers told us was their biggest advantage by going into a client and a way that ExchangeDefender alone lands managed services contracts:
“We go down the feature list in ExchangeDefender and we ask them if they have that feature in their current solution. Yes or no? How much are they paying for that? We then present our managed services plan and just go through their current costs and repeat: We can knock that off your bill so you won’t have that fee to pay again. As we go through their expenses we make our managed services product much more appealing and it always leads to sales.”
We have seen a great number of partners that don’t want an all-in solution and instead want a barebones product. We feel that CloudBlock will help those looking at the price as the only objective. We also feel that ExchangeDefender Essentials will fit the middle ground, where you want your own product with your own brand and margins but a huge discount for only selling the essentials.
What?
ExchangeDefender Essentials is ExchangeDefender without all the enterprise stuff: No LiveArchive, no Web Filtering, no Web File Sharing, no Encryption, no SplitMX, no FailPOP and no compliance archiving.
ExchangeDefender Essentials provides enterprise-class SPAM and virus filtering, mail queueing when your mail server goes down, outbound SMTP relay and all the core technology within ExchangeDefender to keep your network secure. It can be centrally managed, connected to your PSA and is fully supported by us.
Most importantly, ExchangeDefender Essentials is 50% cheaper than ExchangeDefender. It comes with no minimum, no contract requirements and is available on all new account.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
Introducing CloudBlock
Yesterday we held a webcast to announce our messaging portfolio for 2011. If you missed it, the recording along with the webinar and podcast is now available.
Did you miss the webinar? Here is the recording:
Webinar Recording (wmv movie 45 Minutes)
Webinar Slide Deck (pdf)
Webinar Podcast (mp3 higher quality audio)
The biggest news of the day was ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging, combining all the services necessary to go to the cloud in one affordable package. The second biggest announcement was regarding CloudBlock.
Why?
In the past few years we have seen Microsoft and Google commoditize the entire enterprise email solution space. These moves were not welcomed by the reseller channel partners, even as both companies stepped up their efforts to become more partner friendly their primary goal was ownership of the client.
Indeed, many partners have lost clients to BPOS and Google Apps.
Sometimes the price is the only thing that matters. Given the economy, and the relative lack of appreciation for the more complex messaging needs, the low-cost commodity email has become quite popular.
What is CloudBlock?
CloudBlock, Inc is a third-party solution powered by the technology licensed from Own Web Now, ExchangeDefender and Exchange 2010 hosting management in particular.
It’s primary goal is to be simple to use. It’s secondary goal is to be cost effective.
There are two solutions in the stack: Mail (Exchange 2010 hosted in the cloud) and Security (SMTP security in the cloud, filtering SPAM and viruses as well as providing for business continuity).
Simplicity: Anyone can sign up at any time.
Cost Effectiveness: $2.99 for Exchange 2010 Mbox (5GB) and $0.35 for SMTP security.
What isn’t CloudBlock?
CloudBlock is not a channel-centric solution, it does not come with the flexible branding, centralized multi-client management or worldwide presence. But it’s simple to sign up and it’s cheap.
CloudBlock is not backed by a professional services business, support is limited to covering the basics.
The Strategy
CloudBlock was designed to be simple and cost effective. As such, it will not meet the needs of many channel resellers, MSPs or VARs. However, it provides for a level of differentiation. There is a huge difference between CloudBlock and an ExchangeDefender powered Exchange solution. There are tons of benefits when it comes to working with a local IT Solution Provider.
Unfortunately, sometimes the only thing that matters is the bottom line price. If the client is not willing to consider anything but the price, now you have a differentiation strategy. If you cannot clearly explain the difference between your various offerings, you cannot help your client choose the correct one for them.
When IT Solution Provider is pinned against Microsoft and Google, and the client only cares about the price, it’s a loss-loss situation. With CloudBlock, there is at least a hope of keeping them in your solution portfolio so you can fit your other solutions in their business.
You now have a better alternative to BPOS and Google Apps – it’s simpler and cheaper – and we’re confident we’ll help you win.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
To be continued with ExchangeDefender Essentials. See previous entry about ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging.
ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging
Earlier today we held a webcast to announce our messaging portfolio for 2011. This solution stack is directly driven by partner feedback and is designed for service providers. Here is an overview, answers to some common questions and some ideas on how to position this.
Did you miss the webinar? Here is the recording:
Webinar Recording (wmv movie 45 Minutes)
Webinar Slide Deck (pdf)
Webinar Podcast (mp3 higher quality audio)
Why?
Before we get to the actual announcement, I want to personally share the feedback that we have received from so many of you that prompted us to consider a change in our business.
- Many MSPs and VARs found the cloud (serverless) environment “foreign” to their business plans and could not imagine their solution stack existing without the server anchor.
- Many MSPs and VARs complained that they were confronted by retail offerings that were significantly cheaper than the realistic costs of going to the cloud. Licensing and monthly fees are dwarfed by the migration costs that large cloud mail solutions do not talk about.
- Nearly all the MSPs and VARs could not fit the cloud in their margin models. Frequent question was “How do we turn hardware margin dollars into cloud margin cents and stay alive?” Sadly, the answer is: You don’t, without overhauling your salary structure and talent.
- Finally, the client still needed to be managed regardless where the email was. Unfortunately, this too was not a major point of consideration when companies decided to move to the cloud. Cost was.
Unfortunately, MSPs and VARs lost way too much business. I cannot count the number of times that I’ve heard partners talk about losing their clients to Microsoft, or only reaching out to me when they lost their deals to someone in the cloud.
We had to do something. I will agree that our solution is not perfect and does leave a ton of room for improvement, but we needed to act now. Starting with January 1st, we’ll be offering the following solution.
What is included in ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging?
Quite a bit. Actually, everything we do is built in: from security (ExchangeDefender) to email hosting (Exchange 2010 Mailbox, SharePoint 2010 web site) as well as migration, billing and support all under our partners brand.
- ExchangeDefender
- Email Filtering (Antivirus, Antispam, Corp Disclaimers & Policies, Reporting, PSA Integrations)
- LiveArchive (Exchange 2010-powered business continuity solution with 1 year rolling archive)
- Encryption
- Web File Sharing
- Web Filtering
- Exchange 2010 Mailbox with 10GB Storage
- SharePoint 2010 Portal
- Billing & Collections
- Technical Support
- Migration
- DNS modifications
- Shockey Monkey Remote
- Profile (email) move
It sounds like a lot but it’s the bare essentials. In the cloud, you cannot abandon your clients – they only pay when everything works. So we wanted to make sure that our offering worked from the day it was configured and continues to work through all the surprises with the Exchange, Windows and other fun stuff in between.
Does this mean Competition?
Not at all.
First of all, we are not competing for this business with our partners, it is only offered as an alternative to our award winning platform that no changes are being made to. So if you’re already happy with what you have, Exchange pricing for you will not change neither will the cost of the service.
Second, we will not market this directly. The partner (MSP/VAR) still owns the client. We will not take the client and reassign them to a partner we like more. We will not allow one partner to take over the service from another partner if the client wants to switch IT service providers.
Finally, we will remain a partner-centric organization. There are no plans or agenda to go direct, partners are still a core part of our market strategy, something we have been building for the past 13 years. This is not a prelude to a bigger, more direct offering.
What does it mean?
It means that we’ve idiot-proofed the cloud.
It means you now have 0 excuse not to embrace the cloud, at least for messaging.
It means that you don’t have to do any technical labor to offer Exchange 2010 or SharePoint 2010, we’ll do all the hard work for you.
It means that you don’t have to establish a full billing and collections process, we’ll do that for you as well.
Most importantly, it means you don’t have to do the hard work – from configuration to migration to ongoing management. We will manage the solution end to end.
As far as I’m aware, this is the first time a large service provider and software developer has taken full control of the entire 360 degree service delivery and done so under partners own branding. This is key and a critical differentiator: We are not competing with the partners that made us successful, we’re providing another way to build a business.
Long term, strategic view is even more positive: This helps MSPs and VARs that are uncertain about the cloud a way to start profiting from it immediately. Because it is still your client, you can take over all the responsibilities at the end of the contract and realize even higher profits when you can prove that the cloud can indeed generate significant margins.
Most of the skepticism around the cloud is due to the hype. The rest of it is out of the fear and uncertainty about how to actually go to market and succeed.
I’m proud to say that we are taking a big step with our partners in alleviating a lot of those concerns and helping as many as we can as quickly as we can – we’ll help you win.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
To be continued with ExchangeDefender Essentials and CloudBlock.
ExchangeDefender Feedback Loop Emails
Starting tomorrow, ExchangeDefender will be implementing an FBL – feedback loop. The purpose of a feedback loop is to alert system administrators when their email systems are distributing dangerous content.
Initially the FBL will be implemented with ExchangeDefender Service Providers and will only send an email to the SP contact once a day. The email will contain list of domains and violations made from each domain along with the IP address. For example:
From: ExchangeDefender FBL <fbl@exchangedefender.com>
To: Me
Subject: ExchangeDefender Relay Violation
myspamexample [65.99.255.222] is attempting to relay mail from xyz123@comcast.net which is not an ExchangeDefender protected address.
This attempt has been blocked through our security policy but the source server/network should be examined as this is usually the first sign of a compromised system. Systems can be easily compromised and used to spread malware and spyware. When hackers can no longer use these systems to relay SPAM, they tend to use them to launch DDoS, large scale attacks or attempt further security compromises.
Please investigate and address the security issue. Ignoring these notices and underlying security issues can result in a restriction of your ability to relay outbound mail through ExchangeDefender, land your domain/IP on an RBL blacklist and reduce your IP addresses sender reputation.
We have been monitoring the explosion of malware and are addressing a record number of security compromises daily. Last quarter we implemented an SMTP monitoring process as a part of ExchangeDefender and we hope that with web filtering, the FBL test gives us more insight into security problems on your network that can help you manage your network more securely.
First emails will go out on December 1st, 2010.
Busy Holidays
By now nearly everyone has received an email invitation to attend our Holiday Special webcast to close out 2010 and hopefully make December the busiest month you’ve ever had. We wanted to showcase what we’ve been working for the past two months and give you some tips and tricks to grow your business – proven by our most successful partners.
http://www.ownwebnow.com/Holidays2010/
I’ll apologize for the cheesy newsletter but that’s marketing. Now on to business – following the launch of Shockey Monkey I tasked my team at Own Web Now to reorganize the company. We have done this several times in the history of our business and it’s always dictated by the opportunity and our ability to push our partners in the right (read: profitable) direction.
The problem with any good idea is that the catch usually involves doing a ton of training, reading, videos and hard work. Lots of trial and error – across technical, sales, support and marketing fronts. We have worked hard over the past few months to produce documentation, webcasts, seminars even books on the matter so that you can easily plan your cloud approach, know exactly how long it’s going to take and what it’s going to be. Today, things are a mess – between predictability of service levels, documentation that is clearly understood from level 100 to 300, ability to get a very complex situation evaluated in order to provide a simple answer – simply put, we cannot thrive on complexity in order to grow.
Mark my words: What we have developed is bigger than last years announcement of Autotask and ConnectWise integrations. The incredible amount of work we did to make our platform work with the way you run your business is just the beginning. The question now is – how do you grow what you already have, how do you market and differentiate yourself, how do you reposition yourself and find a real partner in helping build your business?
Recently I asked the readers of my personal blog to tell me how they would go about building an MSP if they got a do-over. Starting an IT business is easier than ever and for the most part it’s a process of assembling solutions from vendors who have agreed to play nice with each other. If it’s so simple, you will be facing a much tougher and much cheaper competition – soon. Combined with efforts made by major software companies trying to wedge and dislodge IT solution providers, now is the time to get serious.
December’s webcast will include our business model for the coming years and an announcement of resources you can take right now. We look forward to building this new business with you.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp