ACCORDING to Wikipedia, electronic mail — it wasn’t called e-mail until 1993 — predates the inception of the internet and was a "crucial tool" in creating it. The Autodin network provided a message system among "1,350 terminals, handling 30-million messages per month" way back in 1962.
With an estimated 100-billion e-mails sent globally every day, specialised hosted e-mail security providers, such as Synaq in SA, are becoming an increasingly important part of the digital world.
"We were one of the first companies to come up with a solution for things such as spam, viruses and phishing," says Synaq’s co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson.
The solution means the fan-cooled, inner sanctum of the corporate server room, manned by dedicated and largely uncommunicative in-house technical staff, is becoming as outdated as the floppy disk.
"In 2004, when we first started with this, the word ‘cloud’ didn’t exit," Hasson says. "It was a hosted e-mail security offering. There was a lot of education to clients who were used to server rooms that you could physically see and fix; it gave people confidence that their data was secure.
"Companies were dubious about moving data onto the cloud or having it on some ‘other person’s server’. Now securing and managing e-mail within your own company and maintaining your own, physical infrastructure is no longer a competitive advantage; it’s not adding a competitive differentiator to your business. E-mail is vital, you need it to do business, but you want to consume it and not have to have to worry about it or its security. We do that for you, remotely."
...
Synaq was born of a sub-industry that spawned many great IT initiatives: hacking. Hasson’s business partner was "a home-grown Linux hacker" working for a large internet service provider.
In 2003, the company needed an anti-spam solution that would have cost a few million rand; it used Linux and open-source software to create a solution that cost nothing. Deciding that there had to be an opportunity to commercialise their solution, Synaq was created.
"We struggled for six years," Hasson says candidly. "We saw that Linux was going to grow and would be the next big thing and overtake Microsoft. It didn’t, not on the enterprise side, although it did overtake Microsoft on the back-end; in terms of what runs the internet — Google, Facebook, Amazon — all the big sites run on Linux infrastructure.
"We also ‘saw’ a shift to the cloud long before it happened. So we predicted wrong; with Linux on where it would become pervasive and with the cloud on the timing. After about five years we decided to change the business model from being a service provider to creating a product — software as a service — and focus on company e-mail."
But everything took three times longer and cost three times more than expected. "We burnt cash we didn’t have, had to retrench people, we had to get amnesty from SARS (South African Revenue Service). It was a very painful, dark and tough time and we came close to calling it a day," Hasson says.
Today Synaq has a full-time staff of 23; in the next four months, that will grow to 33. This time next year there will be 50 employees. This growth has been fed in no small part by their partnership with internet Solutions (IS).
...
SYNAQ approached IS as a potential client a few years ago. "They were one of the largest Internet service providers in the country but were managing their e-mail security platform the old-fashioned way with hardware and lots of infrastructure," says Hasson.
"We offered what was basically a cost-cutting exercise. IS indicated they were interested in not only becoming a client but a shareholder."
Wayne Speechly, IS’s executive for cloud and communications, says: "Synaq’s core business is about providing messaging services and it was essential that we partnered with an expert organisation that could focus on this requirement and do it better than we could.
"Their agility and focus meant that not only could we outsource this and realise better cost, scale and service delivery, but Synaq’s innovation in this area would mean better opportunities for our clients to stay abreast in the industry."
IS has a 50.1% majority shareholding in Synaq, but rigorously "tested" its offering before passing it on to their own, huge client base. "Our services enabled them to move a lot quicker for their clients’ requirements," says Hasson. "They are able to customise services according to the local market and bypass a lot of vendors."
...
SPEECHLY says protection of company information is critically important in the information age. With pressures such as globalisation, increased competition and the need for appropriate governance, e-mail security forms a core part of organisations’ defence.
Hasson says a whopping 80% of all business communication happens over e-mail and their security is an issue that organisations cannot afford to ignore. Synaq ensures that only "clean" e-mails land in their clients’ inboxes.
"As security defences go up, so the attacking methodologies change — and hackers are good," he says.
An organisation is "only as secure as their weakest password", he says. It takes only one dullard believing that Password69 makes him not only funny but foolproof, to open the door to malware and attack.
Online and e-mail security "works in waves", Hasson says. "In a few years time it will fall away as security is strengthened in businesses and getting through it is more difficult. Legislation will catch up — innovation in technology is much bigger than governments’ ability to write policy about it.
"Then there will be another outbreak and more attacks and new methodologies and the cycle will start again. It’s different now as people are more comfortable about giving away their privacy. In 10 years’ time people will give their privacy away even more; and we’ll see an emergence of more technologies that maintain your privacy."
That it was technology that took it away in the first place is an irony only a few of us seem to find amusing.
Internet Solutions executive for cloud and communication Wayne Speechly says protection of company information is critically important. Picture: FREDDY MAVUNDA
ACCORDING to Wikipedia, electronic mail — it wasn’t called e-mail until 1993 — predates the inception of the internet and was a "crucial tool" in creating it. The Autodin network provided a message system among "1,350 terminals, handling 30-million messages per month" way back in 1962.
With an estimated 100-billion e-mails sent globally every day, specialised hosted e-mail security providers, such as Synaq in SA, are becoming an increasingly important part of the digital world.
"We were one of the first companies to come up with a solution for things such as spam, viruses and phishing," says Synaq’s co-founder and CEO Yossi Hasson.
The solution means the fan-cooled, inner sanctum of the corporate server room, manned by dedicated and largely uncommunicative in-house technical staff, is becoming as outdated as the floppy disk.
"In 2004, when we first started with this, the word ‘cloud’ didn’t exit," Hasson says. "It was a hosted e-mail security offering. There was a lot of education to clients who were used to server rooms that you could physically see and fix; it gave people confidence that their data was secure.
"Companies were dubious about moving data onto the cloud or having it on some ‘other person’s server’. Now securing and managing e-mail within your own company and maintaining your own, physical infrastructure is no longer a competitive advantage; it’s not adding a competitive differentiator to your business. E-mail is vital, you need it to do business, but you want to consume it and not have to have to worry about it or its security. We do that for you, remotely."
...
Synaq was born of a sub-industry that spawned many great IT initiatives: hacking. Hasson’s business partner was "a home-grown Linux hacker" working for a large internet service provider.
In 2003, the company needed an anti-spam solution that would have cost a few million rand; it used Linux and open-source software to create a solution that cost nothing. Deciding that there had to be an opportunity to commercialise their solution, Synaq was created.
"We struggled for six years," Hasson says candidly. "We saw that Linux was going to grow and would be the next big thing and overtake Microsoft. It didn’t, not on the enterprise side, although it did overtake Microsoft on the back-end; in terms of what runs the internet — Google, Facebook, Amazon — all the big sites run on Linux infrastructure.
"We also ‘saw’ a shift to the cloud long before it happened. So we predicted wrong; with Linux on where it would become pervasive and with the cloud on the timing. After about five years we decided to change the business model from being a service provider to creating a product — software as a service — and focus on company e-mail."
But everything took three times longer and cost three times more than expected. "We burnt cash we didn’t have, had to retrench people, we had to get amnesty from SARS (South African Revenue Service). It was a very painful, dark and tough time and we came close to calling it a day," Hasson says.
Today Synaq has a full-time staff of 23; in the next four months, that will grow to 33. This time next year there will be 50 employees. This growth has been fed in no small part by their partnership with internet Solutions (IS).
...
SYNAQ approached IS as a potential client a few years ago. "They were one of the largest Internet service providers in the country but were managing their e-mail security platform the old-fashioned way with hardware and lots of infrastructure," says Hasson.
"We offered what was basically a cost-cutting exercise. IS indicated they were interested in not only becoming a client but a shareholder."
Wayne Speechly, IS’s executive for cloud and communications, says: "Synaq’s core business is about providing messaging services and it was essential that we partnered with an expert organisation that could focus on this requirement and do it better than we could.
"Their agility and focus meant that not only could we outsource this and realise better cost, scale and service delivery, but Synaq’s innovation in this area would mean better opportunities for our clients to stay abreast in the industry."
IS has a 50.1% majority shareholding in Synaq, but rigorously "tested" its offering before passing it on to their own, huge client base. "Our services enabled them to move a lot quicker for their clients’ requirements," says Hasson. "They are able to customise services according to the local market and bypass a lot of vendors."
...
SPEECHLY says protection of company information is critically important in the information age. With pressures such as globalisation, increased competition and the need for appropriate governance, e-mail security forms a core part of organisations’ defence.
Hasson says a whopping 80% of all business communication happens over e-mail and their security is an issue that organisations cannot afford to ignore. Synaq ensures that only "clean" e-mails land in their clients’ inboxes.
"As security defences go up, so the attacking methodologies change — and hackers are good," he says.
An organisation is "only as secure as their weakest password", he says. It takes only one dullard believing that Password69 makes him not only funny but foolproof, to open the door to malware and attack.
Online and e-mail security "works in waves", Hasson says. "In a few years time it will fall away as security is strengthened in businesses and getting through it is more difficult. Legislation will catch up — innovation in technology is much bigger than governments’ ability to write policy about it.
"Then there will be another outbreak and more attacks and new methodologies and the cycle will start again. It’s different now as people are more comfortable about giving away their privacy. In 10 years’ time people will give their privacy away even more; and we’ll see an emergence of more technologies that maintain your privacy."
That it was technology that took it away in the first place is an irony only a few of us seem to find amusing.
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