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Symantec acquires MessageLabs

aps@cmswatch.com(Alan Pelz-Sharpe) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:06:00 -0400

Last week Symantec agreed to purchase MessageLabs, the UK-based SaaS e-mail archiving service for $695 million, a truly astounding figure in today's difficult financial markets. It's a deal that asks as many questions as it answers.

On the one hand, it was little surprise that Symantec wanted to boost its SaaS offering, since despite bold assertions to the contrary, it has been clear that this was a hole for them, and one that they were unable to fix alone. But at this price, it is a hole that will need a whole lot of filling to get a return on the investment. That figure feels even greater when one considers that Symantec have not bought new archiving technology as such, for the little known secret is that MessageLabs actually relies on OEM'd technology from Fortiva to run. Fortiva itself was recently acquired by ProofPoint, and it remains in question whether this reliance on a rival's technology will remain viable in the long term.

In short Symantec paid $695 million just for a service, a service that relies on somebody else's technology, a service that is largely restricted to the UK. Perhaps they know something we don't.

Symantec is without doubt the e-mail archiving market leader, with Gartner estimating their share of market at 20%. But as customers our E-mail Archiving & Management services know all too well, market share does not equate to best fit or best buy. Though good technology comes from Symantec it is clearly not a always a good fit for buyers, particularly in a market that continues to deliver new, competitively priced, and innovative offerings.

In a sense then all this acquisition means is simply that people continue to bet big on e-mail archiving. It continues to grow as a area of importance for buyers (and vendors) around the globe, and as such we will continue to see the market evolve and grow rapidly. But remember, rapidly evolving markets can entail high risks for buyers. Our E-mail Archiving and Management Report points out that there are some good technology offerings out there. and e-mail archiving can represent one of the soundest of content investments, but it is not risk free, so evaluate the offerings very carefully before making your move.

In fact, you may well be surprised at just how radical the differences can be among the likes of Symantec, CA, Dell, Google and Autonomy. Some capture at the gateway, others by journaling, some provide stubbing, some don't. By default you can easily be dazzled, and end up buying great technology that turns out to be a poor fit for your particular needs.

Legal ruling shakes up E-mail Archiving and Management Sector

aps@cmswatch.com(Alan Pelz-Sharpe) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:49:00 -0400

The whole issue of (E-mail Archiving and Management) EAM has come under the spotlight recently - triggered by a ruling by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco - a ruling that touches on the Fourth Amendment "Protection from unreasonable search and seizure." In this particular case, plaintiffs argued that when employers read the content of text messages sent by their employees, text messages that were held by a hosted vendor (Arch Wireless), that the employees' fourth amendment privileges were breached. In other words that even though the employees were using company-paid messaging systems, that the employer should still respect their privacy and the confidential nature of personal message exchanges.

It's a ruling that could have a huge impact on the EAM market and in particular on vendors like Fortiva, Dell MessageOne and Google Postini, that all offer hosted SaaS EAM solutions. Why SaaS options in particular? Well the ruling states that employers (when using "outside" third-party text or e-mail services) cannot get access to employees' content without their permission first. The ruling is a bit hazy -- and may or may not apply if the mail and text servers are located on-premise. But regardless of whether this just applies to SaaS or both on and off premise solutions, just think the implications through for a moment -- the impact is potentially huge.

Since the ruling, the story has been picked up widely in the press - and as a result the popular verdict is clear - workplace mail is (for the time being at least) confidential. So how does this impact firms that are using EAM software to check up (snoop and breach confidentiality) on what employees are saying to one another? Where does it leave any employer when it comes to accessing employee messages in potentially legitimate business situations? Currently it leaves them between a rock and a hard place. There will likely be some exceptions to this for example those subject to FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), i.e., potential terrorists. But for the average employee without murderous intent for now at least the law seems to be quite clear: in the United States your employer cannot assume access to your messages without your permission. And for EAM vendors they are in an even more invidious position -- rather like those shops at the mall that sell drug paraphernalia -- perfectly legal to possess, but use them as designed and you are in big trouble

It's clearly an area that will be debated ad-nauseum over the coming months. But regardless of the ultimate outcome, this ruling is a reminder to us all that technology and vendors do not set law, and are not exempt from it. EAM vendors cannot sell you a compliant system; there is no such thing. It's you the employer and buyer who either is or is not compliant with laws and regulations. And just because technology appears to have run ahead of itself here does not mean that the law will have to run to catch up. Rather it will be you the user and buyer who will have to control and adjust your usage of the technologies.

Announcing the E-mail Archiving and Management Report

aps@cmswatch.com(Alan Pelz-Sharpe) — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:29:00 -0400

This may well go down as the busiest period in CMS Watch's history as this month we launch yet another new technology evaluation report, The E-mail Archiving & Management Report 2008. From our release:

EAM technology has become critical to both commercial and government enterprises -- but for a variety of different and sometimes conflicting reasons. This has led to a similarly diverse set of approaches from EAM suppliers...

It's somewhat surprising that this report -- which provides comprehensive comparative evaluations of 14 leading EAM vendors -- is one of the first of its kind anywhere.

Subscribers, you will be getting your copy very shortly. Others can order a copy or download a free sample here.

The report loosely groups EAM vendors into three categories:

Policy-Centric: Autonomy, CA, Open Text, IBM, and Symantec

Archive-Centric: AXS-One, EMC, HP, Mimosa, and ZL Technologies

SaaS: Dell, Fortiva, Google, and Microsoft

The research has taken more than six months to complete, and in the process we have talked to many customers and users of EAM systems. The conversations were illuminating and we look forward very much to continue those discussions moving forward.