Author Archive

New Outlk Gts U 10% Mre Efcnt

msoutlookplus10All Sonian team members get to choose their own email client. Some of us like web-based Gmail’s label & search approach to email management, others like Outlook’s drag-item-to-folder for inbox organizing and triage, and some the simplicity of mail.app in OS X. Universal protocols like IMAP and iCal, as well as reliable fast Internet connections, make this all work harmoniously across Windows, Mac and Linux desktops, on-premise and cloud servers.  Choice is good and interoperability is great.

Microsoft has announced the next version of the Outlook email client will improve email productivity by 10 percent. We don’t know all the specifics yet, but most likely the improvements will be about information triage and efficient filing. Assuming 10% is accurate, apply the math to a company with 1,000 employees and you can see how even small improvements get amplified across the enterprise.

Sonian is interested in the email efficiency theme and has some exciting ideas on how to make email work better for all users, regardless of email client. Look for more news on this topic in early 2010.


Cloud Infrastructure Expands into Asia

aws-aisa-logoAWS has announced an expansion of its services into an Asia-Pacific region in the first half of 2010, enabling businesses to deploy compute and storage resources in close proximity to their end-users in the region.

Sonian will access AWS’s infrastructure services from multiple Availability Zones in Singapore in the first half of 2010, then in other Availability Zones within Asia over the second half of 2010.


Cisco Offers Comprehensive SaaS Collaboration

cisco-webex-ironportOver the past 2 years Cisco has been acquiring companies in the messaging and collaboration space. The individual companies are all interesting and successful businesses, and now Cisco has combined them into a new SaaS collaboration service called WebEx Mail which feature-wise looks to compete head on with Google Apps and Hosted Exchange.

For $5 per user per month you get 35 Gb of storage, Outlook connector and a AJAXy web UI plus Ironport email security. This new offering will be an interesting platform to watch and see if Cisco can win collaboration business away from Microsoft, IBM, Novell and Google.

Sonian will provide hosted archiving services for this new platform.


Cloud Infrastructure Achieves SAS70 Type II Certification

aws-sas-70-type-2Congratulations to Amazon Web Services for finalizing Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS70) Type II Audit, and has obtained a favorable unbiased opinion from its independent auditors.

SAS70 certifies that AWS has had an in-depth audit of its controls, specifically as it relates to operational performance and security to safeguard customer data. All Sonian customers benefit from this attention to security and operating efficiency.


Sonian GroupWise Archving Saves NKF Storage Costs

search-storageNational Kidney Foundation cuts GroupWise storage with cloud storage email archiving. Search Storage reports that NKF is saving money on email storage with the Sonian Archive hosted service.

Hosted archiving does not require any on-premises hardware or software, and enables the IT department to focus on other projects without worrying about email retention and long term storage.