Author Archive

Mind the Gap – Bridging the Security Gap in Microsoft’s Communication and Collaboration platform

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Microsoft’s Communication and Collaboration platform comprising Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 and Microsoft SharePoint streamlines how organizations connect people, processes and information. Microsoft SharePoint alone boasts 100MM+ users. Throw in Exchange and Microsoft OCS R2 and the user base balloons. However communication and collaboration is not limited to corporate boundaries and the out-of-the-box file transfer capabilities provided within Outlook, OCS and SharePoint do not provide a guaranteed secure delivery path to all users.

To work efficiently and share information securely across organizational boundaries requires an additional file transfer security layer to bridge the security gap in Microsoft’s communication and collaboration platform.

Punching holes in firewalls, managing separate server farms to serve the external user community, changing network topology, adding servers to the DMZ adds a tremendous amount of IT management and licensing cost to maintain this additional infrastructure.

Today we announced general availability of the Accellion secure file transfer plug-ins for the Microsoft Business Productivity Suite.  The Accellion plug-ins enable Microsoft SharePoint, Outlook and OCS users to quickly and securely send information from within Outlook, the Office Communicator Client or from the SharePoint Document Library to both internal and external parties.  Best of all the organization has complete tracking of all file transfers to ensure compliance and data security.

• Want to send and track a file from the Microsoft SharePoint library to an external collaborator?
• Want to send a 2G file without hampering the performance of the Exchange server?
• Want to send a file securely during chat within Microsoft OCS?

No problem, with the Accellion Microsoft Business Productivity secure file transfer plug-ins.  Designed for fast, easy deployment, the Accellion secure file transfer plug-ins for Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint and OCS allow organizations to maximize the utilization and performance of these solutions while closing the security gap.

Posted in Accellion, Data Security, Email Attachments, Product | No Comments »

File Transfer: A Business Productivity Tool

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

File transfer is becoming a significant business productivity tool. Just last week Google added file transfer to Google Chat – it was one of the most requested features. People share files much more frequently than they did previously and real time file transfer is becoming a necessary tool. The functionality of business productivity tools such as email, IM, online conferencing can all benefit from integrated file transfer capabilities.

It is encouraging to see file transfer being integrated into real-time communication tools that go beyond just email. While we support real-time file transfer we are very cognizant of the need for file transfer security to ensure protection of confidential personal information and protection of  intellectual property.  From a security perspective, file transfer within applications such as Google Chat will create new un-secure file transfer holes that will need to be plugged to ensure data security.

Accellion provides APIs that enable integration of secure file transfer into not only email but also business applications.

–Sunita Reddy

Posted in Accellion | No Comments »

Email in the Cloud

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Email in the Cloud is forcing organizations to think more dynamically about email migrations.

Enterprises need to rethink their email migration strategies to respond to the growing reality of email deployments in the cloud. Business email is in transition. Traditionally, email vendors such as Microsoft and IBM have rolled out major releases every couple of years.  Each new release giving customers a new reason to migrate. However, there is a larger trend on the horizon – corporate email moving into the cloud.

Google Apps, Microsoft BPOS and IBM Lotus Live are making hosted business email a viable option for companies of all sizes and in all industries. As business email transitions to the cloud, email migration needs are changing as well. IT managers are now expected to respond to the new reality that email migrations are no longer a scheduled one-time project for the entire organization. Email migrations are becoming more dynamic.

What do organizations need to do to respond to this new dynamic migration environment?   Enterprises will need to be nimble, agile and flexible as the migration process is no longer a one-time project.  Going forward, email migrations can be tailored by department or group of users to accommodate specific needs.

Regardless of whether the email migration is for an entire organization or for a department, IT managers can turn the complex migration to simpler departmentalized tasks by implementing policies to limit the amount of data that flows through the email servers. Ask us how? http://www.accellion.com/solutions/it/email-migration

–Sunita Reddy

Posted in Cloud | No Comments »

Email Migrations – Greetings & Introduction

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

By way of introduction, my name is Sunita. I have lived and worked in the Silicon Valley for 15+ years. I have an extensive Microsoft background, and have worked with Microsoft channel partners worldwide.  I am responsible for the email market for Accellion.

You will find me blogging on a number of topics, from Email Migrations to Unified Messaging and everything in between.  I have been reading with interest the developments happening in the email migration space. The playing field is definitely more interesting with the introduction of hosted corporate email. Email migrations are becoming more on-going and dynamic.

You might wonder how all of these fit into your environment – that’s what I am going to be writing about. I look forward to connecting online!

–Sunita Reddy

Posted in Accellion | No Comments »