Messaging News - February 2009 - (Page 10)

Virtualized Environments get them to take the product on. As our customers moved further into Europe, these costs only increased.” Spam Titan also desired more business in the U.S. and there were costs associated with being able to do that as well. By 2006 Spam Titan began looking at virtualization, which coincided with VMware looking for applications to run in its environment. “We got involved with VMware in the very early stage of the Virtual Appliance Certification Program,” says Kavanagh. “We are one of the few companies that have you can also click on them and start a phone call or IM conversation. So everything is in one place, not only for the end user at the desktop, but also for IT people in the back.” Unison is on premise at the moment, but has plans to offer a hosted version later this year. There are two different models. “The first is what we call ‘sponsor-supported’ which is licensed at no cost, if ads will be accepted inside the desktop client and the admin panel,” explains Bradbury. “The other version is a paid license where there are no ads, prefer to deploy. One of the core benefits of VMware Infrastructure is that it provides customers the ability to choose across a broad and unique array of hardware products,” says Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions at VMware. Hardware vendors seeking VMware certification first need to enroll in the VMware Technology Alliance Program. Upon membership, VMware and the vendor then conduct an analysis of the product to ensure it meets basic compatibility criteria. “Going into virtualization, we thought this would be for a mid- to large-sized organization. But there are a lot of small guys—50-person organizations, with a two-person IT shop—running everything on VMware.” —Keith R. Crosley, Proofpoint, Inc. followed VMware Certified Virtual Appliance Program to their VMware Ready Virtual Appliance Program, which means we have been tested by VMware to ensure that our product works with their entire suite of products.” Virtualization has not only caught the interest of established messaging vendors, but also the imagination of other companies that develop and offer products only for the virtualized environment. Unison Technologies, headquartered in New York is such a company. Launched in August, Unison is a new approach to unified communications (UC). It is a software solution in two parts: Unison Server, which unifies all major communications in a single Linuxbased server; and Unison Desktop, a single desktop client—for either Windows or Linux—that handles all communication for end users. “The server handles telephony and PBX functionality; instant messaging; email; calendar and group scheduling; contacts and address book; user presence—everything in one,” states Rurik Bradbury, CMO Unison Technologies, Inc. “The desktop client also does everything in one, so that not only can you email people, 10 which is $50 USD per user, per year. So companies can either choose to have it for free, and with the bad economy many find appealing these days, or they can switch to a paid license with no ads.” At the moment, many customers are using the free version, but Bradbury feels that might change over time. “Unison hasn’t been around for many years, so people are testing it out. I think we will have a better sense of the split between the free and licensed models in six to 12 months.” Virtualization Platform When it comes to developing applications for the virtual environment, many like Proofpoint and Spam Titan are for VMware. VMware is the market leader in virtual infrastructure software. According to IDC, VMware revenue share (as of mid-last year) was 78 percent of the virtualization market. VMware launched its hardware certification program in 2000 to enable VMware and its hardware partners to fully test and optimize their products for VMware Infrastructure. “As our customers move to run VMware Infrastructure across all of their systems, there’s an increased diversity of server and storage platforms on which they Spam Titan chose the VMware platform because of its market share and because it offers more partner resources. “They are probably the company that has dedicated the most resources,” believes Kavanagh. “If you go to the VMware Web site, for example, they have a significant number of resources dedicated to virtual appliances and the promotion of virtual appliances. Unlike some of the other virtualization products out there, although some are starting to do it, but not to the extend that VMware has.” VMware offers online e-marketing tools, template-based demand generation campaigns, content syndication, RSS feeds and its VMware partner portal. The VMware VIP Partner Program also offers sales and marketing tools in localized versions. But Kavanagh expects that in the future Spam Titan may offer other virtual platforms. “It is an area that we are looking at,” he concedes. “There are others out there and it is to our advantage and to our customer’s advantage to be able to support those.” Unison is built on the Parallels platform. “Parallels is big in the hosting industry,” reports Bradbury. “A large majority of Web hosting companies MESSAGING NEWS FEBRUARY 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Messaging News - February 2009

Messaging News - February 2009 Contents Editor’s Note Short Takes Options Grow for Virtualized Environments Messaging Predictions for 2009 Moving Into the Cloud IBM Comes Out Swinging Next in Messaging News Learning to Do More with Less: An RSA Conference 2009 Preview “On Message” with Ben Gross The Web Has Shifted. Is Your Network Ready? Making the Case Learn More

Messaging News - February 2009

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