Today is an exciting day for Sonian and the IBM® Lotus® community. Just a few moments ago, here at Lotusphere® 2010 in Orlando, Kevin Cavanaugh, IBM Vice President of Messaging and Collaboration,  detailed the future of the Lotus cloud collaboration strategy.  In addition to announcing some major customer wins, Kevin confirmed that IBM is continuing to make significant investments in offering its customers the ability to take advantage of cloud powered collaboration and IBM LotusLiveTM Notes 2.0 will be at the forefront of that investment.

Kevin and the team at IBM understand that email archiving and eDiscovery are core components of any enterprise cloud powered collaboration infrastructure. With this understanding, IBM announced a teaming agreement with Sonian, the experts in cloud powered email archiving and eDiscovery, to enable email archiving for LotusLive Notes and LotusLive iNotes.

What exactly does this mean?

1. IBM and Sonian have worked together to create an automated, secure feed of customer data from the LotusLive Notes environment to the Sonian Archive Service.
2. In addition to the automated feed from LotusLive Notes for hosted e-mail, IBM has worked with Sonian to develop an in-the-cloud exclusive: Notes Compound Document Record (CDR) support. This means that you can index 100% of the text content, including workflow artifacts and content stored in rich text fields.
3. The service is planned to be available with the release of LotusLive Notes 2.0

Who will benefit and when?

1. Customers of LotusLive Notes – Upon the launch of the LotusLive Notes 2.0
2. Customers of LotusLive iNotes – Immediately! Contact Sonian to learn more

NEEDHAM, MA, December 15, 2009 –– Sonian, Inc., the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, today announced full e-discovery support and advanced search capabilities as native components of its Cloud-powered email archiving and e-discovery service. Sonian ensures litigation readiness should the need arise while it simultaneously reduces storage costs, improves overall email server performance, meets compliance requirements and delivers a quick, easy and secure end-user experience.

Sonian Advanced Search features a web-based interface that conducts full searches across text and attachments with Google-like speed to find desired items within seconds. By tracking conversations going back years, finding every email on any specified topic and meeting discovery requests in seconds, it makes e-discovery fast and simple. Searches can easily be conducted by legal or compliance staff from a web-browser interface with results in just a few hours.

In the case of impending lawsuits, Sonian allows users to define a litigation hold for each legal case and protect relevant data from deletion indefinitely. Using the web-based user interface, legal counsel or IT can search for relevant messages and copy them to a hold folder where they remain for as long as the hold is in effect.

“Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), all corporate email can be requested for legal discovery. Failing to enforce a consistent retention policy and being unprepared to produce email data within very tight timelines may result in a presumption of guilt, cost millions in fines or settlements and damage credibility,” said George Nichols, CEO of Sonian, Inc. “Sonian allows businesses to comply with the FRCP requirements, apply litigation holds and easily meet e-discovery requests without paying for unnecessary features or placing additional demands on IT.”

About Sonian

Sonian is the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, which delivers archiving/storage, e-discovery and compliance services. Global organizations rely on Sonian for its affordability, security, ease of deployment and use. Founded in 2006, Sonian supports thousands of customers on all major enterprise collaboration solutions including Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Zimbra and others; and enjoys strategic partnerships with industry leaders Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Axway and IBM. For more information, visit www.sonian.com.

NEEDHAM, MA, December 8, 2009 –– Sonian, Inc., the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, today announced that founder and CTO Greg Arnette will speak at the Xconomy Forum: Cloud3 to take place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 10, 2009, at the Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142. Sonian’s mission is to archive the world’s electronic communications and files and simultaneously make them universally accessible and useful.

Cloud computing at its core essence offers incredible amounts of compute, storage and bandwidth for low commodity prices. Sonian’s Cloud-powered email archiving and ediscovery service promises to reduce storage costs, improve overall email server performance, meet compliance requirements and deliver a quick, easy and secure end-user experience. At the Xconomy Forum: Cloud3, Arnette will speak about capital-efficient cloud startups as well as a fourth wave of enterprise computing, where organizations adopt a hybrid IT approach that solves enterprise pain points with cloud computing that is as secure and reliable as on-premise IT.

Xconomy Forum: Cloud3

WHAT: “Cloud Computing and the Fourth Wave of Enterprise IT”
WHO: Greg Arnette, founder and CTO, Sonian, Inc.
WHEN: Thursday, December 10, at 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT
WHERE: Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142.

About Greg Arnette
At Sonian, Arnette is responsible for the product vision, technical innovation, and engineering leadership. He has been a messaging, collaboration, Internet and networking expert for more than 15 years and has designed leading messaging system solutions for all communication platforms. From 1998 to 2006, Arnette was founder and CTO for IntelliReach Corporation, a pioneer in integrated messaging management products and services. Arnette has a BA/BS from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
About Sonian
Sonian is the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, which delivers archiving/storage, e-discovery and compliance services. Global organizations rely on Sonian for its affordability, security, ease of deployment and use. Founded in 2006, Sonian supports thousands of customers on all major enterprise collaboration solutions including Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Zimbra and others; and enjoys strategic partnerships with industry leaders Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Axway and IBM. For more information, visit www.sonian.com.

NEEDHAM, MA, December 7, 2009 –– Sonian Inc., the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, today announced that Saint John Vianney High School has implemented the Sonian Cloud-powered email archiving and ediscovery service to meet its seven-year email retention policy. Saint John Vianney chose Sonian because the affordable hosted service complements its existing Gmail system, which Google provides for free to schools and universities as part of its Google Apps for Education offering, on both price and ease of use.

“When measured against hosted email and archiving suites, the combination of Gmail and Sonian was still less expensive. As far as I’m concerned, Saint John Vianney has a best-of-breed solution with the combined Gmail and Sonian services,” said Tom McKenna, network administrator for Saint John Vianney High School. “Their SLAs mean they worry about the data by providing capabilities that we could never afford, such as redundancy, multiple data center backups, climate controlled data centers, etc. All at a fair price.”

Sonian also was easy to implement. McKenna was able to take advantage of Gmail’s option to configure and sort mail to another box and transition 140 mail boxes onto the new system in 30 minutes. “I set Sonian up lickety-split; set it and forget it,” McKenna says. “Gmail does make it easy to flip between accounts, but Sonian also is easy to configure and get up and running.”

“FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) requires schools to ensure protection of student educational records. A simple way to achieve FERPA compliance with emailed records is to archive them securely with Sonian’s hosted email archiving solution,” said George Nichols, CEO of Sonian. “By storing emails securely in the cloud, these records are retrieved and viewed only by those allowed within FERPA.”

About Saint John Vianney High School

Saint John Vianney High School is a private, Catholic institution based in Holmdel, NJ, with over 1,000 students and a combined staff of approximately 100 teachers, administrators, and support personnel. School facilities are the finest in Monmouth County with 38 acres of developed land that includes athletic fields, a “turf” stadium field, two gyms and a weight training facility that support more than 25 varsity sports.  Saint John Vianney is a one-to-one Tablet PC school where technology is key to education and communication.  A ParentPortal allows parents/guardians to go online to see their child’s real-time progression in each class. Over 99% of graduates go on to college and attend many of the most prestigious colleges and universities.

About Sonian

Sonian is the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, which delivers archiving/storage, e-discovery and compliance services. Global organizations rely on Sonian for its affordability, security, ease of deployment and use. Founded in 2006, Sonian supports thousands of customers on all major enterprise collaboration solutions including Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Zimbra and others; and enjoys strategic partnerships with industry leaders Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Axway and IBM. For more information, visit www.sonian.com.

Cost effective, secure, reliable, compliant and easy-to-use Cloud-powered email archiving and ediscovery service will be on display

NEEDHAM, MA, December 2, 2009 –– Sonian, Inc., the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, today announced it has been selected to exhibit at the MIT Startup Showcase from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M. on Thursday, December 3, at the MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. Sonian’s Cloud-powered email archiving and ediscovery service helps reduce storage costs, improve overall email server performance, meet compliance requirements and delivers a quick, easy and secure end-user experience.

Featuring 30 early stage startup exhibitors, the MIT Startup Showcase is part of the 12^th Annual MIT Venture Capital Conference. Sonian is one of 30 early-stage businesses from sectors including information technology, healthcare and clean technology to exhibit their business vision and technology prowess. Attendees include VCs, Angels, corporate executives, and the general public.

“The upcoming MIT Startup Showcase is a great opportunity to see what an impact Sonian’s Cloud-powered, hosted email archiving and ediscovery service is making on organizations,” said George Nichols, CEO of Sonian, Inc. “Our platform-agnostic Sonian service supports all major e-mail programs, requires no additional hardware or software investment and can be up and running within an hour.”

About Sonian

Sonian is the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, which delivers archiving/storage, ediscovery and compliance services. Global organizations rely on Sonian for its affordability, security, ease of deployment and use. Founded in 2006, Sonian supports thousands of customers on all major enterprise collaboration solutions including Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Zimbra and others; and enjoys strategic partnerships with industry leaders Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Axway and IBM. For more information, visit www.sonian.com.

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NEEDHAM, MA, November 30, 2009 –– Sonian Inc., the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, today announced that John Landry, serial entrepreneur and managing director of Lead Dog Ventures, has joined the Board of Directors. Widely recognized for his ability to transform disruptive technologies into successful software companies, John brings deep industry insight, knowledge and a long and successful track record to Sonian’s rapidly growing Cloud-based hosted email archive and ediscovery services.

“Sonian has spent the last several years building reliable applications that are quickly building momentum in the market. They have harnessed the promise of Cloud computing to meet the growing challenges of ediscovery, compliance and archiving for enterprises of all sizes,” said Landry.  “I’m excited to be a part of a team that is well in front of the Cloud computing curve and ready to bring a new generation of fast, reliable, cost effective and scalable business services to enterprises.”

John Landry has spent nearly 30 years helping people connect with one another while building world-class software companies.  As managing director of the business accelerator Lead Dog Ventures, he helps provide emerging technology enterprises access to a well-developed network of relationship, technology and financial capital.

Prior to Lead Dog, John was Vice President for Technology Strategy at IBM where he discovered and evaluated “disruptive” technologies emerging from new companies for IBM’s corporate strategy. Before IBM, John was senior vice president of development and CTO at Lotus Development Corporation in Cambridge, MA. Prior to Lotus, John served as senior vice president and CTO at Dun & Bradstreet, Cullinet Software, Distribution Management Systems, and McCormack & Dodge. Additionally, Landry has served as Chairman/CTO of Agility Systems, which was acquired by Dun and Bradstreet; Chairman of Narrative Communications, acquired by Excite@Home; Chairman/CTO of Anyday.com, acquired by Palm; and Chairman/CTO of Adjoin Solutions, acquired by Computer Associates.

John is a director and investor in several private high technology companies, is a long-time Trustee of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, a Mass HighTech All Star, an Xconomist, a member of CommonAngels and a TechStar mentor.  He holds a BA in Finance from Babson College, where he serves as Trustee and part-time instructor.

“Having John Landry join the Sonian Board is a testament to the quality of our team and the technology in place at Sonian,” said George Nichols, President and CEO, Sonian, Inc. “With John we have added another remarkable talent to help guide/drive our success as the leading Cloud-based software as a service company.”

About Sonian

Sonian is the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, which delivers archiving/storage, ediscovery and compliance services. Global organizations rely on Sonian for its affordability, security, ease of deployment and use. Founded in 2006, Sonian supports thousands of customers on all major enterprise collaboration solutions including Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Zimbra and others; and enjoys strategic partnerships with industry leaders Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Axway and IBM. For more information, visit www.sonian.com.

Overview

Silverwood Partners is a sector-focused investment bank that provides M&A and private capital raising advisory services to information, communications, financial services, and digital imaging technology companies, and healthcare, industrial and consumer companies. Silverwood delivers acquisition, divestiture or corporate sale advisory, strategic-financial advisory and institutional financing services to companies in its targeted business sectors.

Challenge

As a broker/dealer organization, Silverwood Partners must comply with FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) regulations, which stipulate that companies keep all correspondence, including emails, for three years. Since the Silverwood professional staff typically work on complicated deals, they had accumulated almost a quarter million emails, most with large attachments, which need to be managed without overloading mailboxes, the company’s Exchange server, systems or staff. As Silverwood continued to grow, the company needed to migrate to a more scalable and secure compliance solution, which would archive all email and attachments immediately and also accommodate existing information retention policies.

Solution

When Silverwood managing partner Jonathan Hodson-Walker heard about Sonian as a platform agnostic email archiving solution, he liked the fact that it was easier to use and more complete than his current email archiving system. Today, Silverwood has more than 225,000 emails stored on Sonian’s cloud-based system. A hosted SaaS offering, Sonian was quick to implement and easy to access via a Web browser interface.

Sonian’s flexible archiving solution with unlimited storage capacity allows Silverwood Partners to maintain its retention policies and meet FINRA compliance requirements.

“We can journal and retrieve every single email by time period,” says Hodson-Walker. “This makes a response to an archive request easier and complete. It also eliminates human error in the archiving process.”

Benefits

Now that Silverwood Partners is archiving emails via Sonian, the firm is realizing the following benefits from the Sonian email archiving service:

• Satisfy all FINRA compliance requirements;

• Real time capture and journaling of all emails/attachments as they are stored in a scalable Cloud repository that can grow alongside Silverwood Partners;

• Significant cost savings due to the fact that Sonian does not require any hardware or personnel investment and is much less expensive to run over time;

• Improved performance from the Silverwood Exchange server.

About Sonian

Sonian is the trusted cloud-powered universal data management company, which delivers archiving/storage, e-discovery and compliance services. Global organizations rely on Sonian for its affordability, security, ease of deployment and use. Founded in 2006, Sonian supports thousands of customers on all major enterprise collaboration solutions including Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Zimbra and others; and enjoys strategic partnerships with industry leaders Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Axway and IBM. For more information, visit www.sonian.com.

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.

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.

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.