Maildistiller are sharing in the celebrations of Norway’s National holiday, with the signing of their first and exclusive strategic partnership for the Norwegian channel.

May 17th is Norway’s National Day of celebration, where Norwegians worldwide commemorate the signing of Norway’s written constitution back in 1814. Fast forward 198 years and Maildistiller are sharing in the celebrations with the signing of their first and onl,y key strategic distributor partnership in Norway.

 As a former Webroot partner, SaaS Security were on the lookout for a suitable replacement for their extensive email security user base and Maildistiller seemed to tick all the right boxes. 

“We were looking for a multi-operational platform which allowed us to manage both our reseller channel and all our end-users from one interface. After Webroot announced their departure from the email security market we engaged with 5-6 potential vendors, but Maildistiller suited are needs best by far. We firmly believe that Maildistiller is the best solution for our Norwegian market.” - CEO Egil Løseth.

SaaS security have a current partner base of over 600 resellers from across Norway, Sweden and Iceland. The distributor’s new partnership with cloud security vendor Maildistiller, will grant them the exclusive position of being Maildistiller’s sole representative and strategic partner for the Norwegian channel.

 With a mature network of both enterprise consultancies and SMEs, SaaS security have a very varied but focussed customer-base, and CEO  Egil Løseth is keen to expand their email security offerings and user experience with the plethora of additional features that the Maildistiller platform offers. 

“With Maildistiller on our side we are confident of winning 9 out of 10 deals. The unique Instant Replay function and Emergency Inbox feature ensures that our clients will never lose an email and always have their email service up and running.” – Egil Løseth, CEO, SaaS Security.

The exclusive partnership between SaaS Security and Maildistiller for the Norwegian channel, further expands Maildistiller’s global reach, which has been rapidly increasing from the introduction of their utility pricing model for MSPs. By operating through a trusted distributor such as SaaS Security, Maildistiller are able to confidently deploy their purpose-built solutions to yet another market whilst ensuring that the highest levels of service and provision are always adhered to. 

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome SaaS security on board as our first and exclusive Norwegian partner. Building strong strategic partnerships is key to us here at Maildistiller as we operate a 100% channel focussed business, and we are confident that Egil and his team are exactly the type of partner representation that we pride ourselves on.” Colm McGoldrick – Maildistiller CEO.

 With the Maildistiller platform enabling distributors such as SaaS Security and large MSPs to build and manage their own channel of resellers and end-users from a single secure login, plus the introduction of monthly utility billing – it seems Maildistiller have the commercial and management needs of their partners firmly in focus. 

2012 is rumoured as the tipping point for cloud. For the last four to five years, we have heard that cloud (Internet-delivered solutions) is about to go mainstream, however, this year it is not the hype, but real user benefits that are driving adoption.

What do I mean by this. Well people are not going out looking for cloud-based solutions (“I want some cloud”), instead they are looking for a solution to a real problem. Some users are unknowingly using a cloud-based solution (either in their business or personal lives) and are quickly seeing the benefits. Take for example Dropbox, a free tool for sharing (large) files across devices seamlessly, easily and from anywhere, where users adopt it from a need that it solves and not because of the technology factor behind it or because of any cloud hype.

Cloud computing is expected to enjoy an adoption rate and growth of between 30 to 40 percent per year, every year for the next five years and its promise of substantial benefits will drive this adoption. . A 2012 customer study from Rise indicating that 94% of IT departments expect to expand their use of cloud in the next 12 months.

“Enterprises that embrace cloud computing reduce the amount of IT time and budget devoted to legacy systems and routine upgrades, which then increases the time and budget they have for more innovative projects. When IT innovation happens, business innovation is reached, which then supports job creation.” IDC Chief Research Officer John F. Gantz

The key benefits of cloud Include:

• Easier more flexible access in a world of consumerisation and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device),
• Increased resilience,
• Easier migration/implementation,
• Simplicity of use,
• Consistency across platforms ,
• Reduced cost of both implementation and on-going usage, and
• Innovation acceleration.

We still hear the downers on cloud – the news stories of gloom, fear and disdain. It was not so long ago that Internet shopping was placed in the same bucket, and yet this has become the norm and is continuing to enjoy compound growth and affect the traditional bricks-and-mortar retail arena.

There is plenty of hype on the ‘cloud’ and certainly plenty of discussion and content, and yet reports and audiences still show a need for education on the terms, benefits and realities of this growing form factor.  Top concerns of businesses in survey after survey on the cloud, continue to be security, data sovereignty and reliability. In a recent end user study from the Cloud Industry Forum 62% of companies using or planning to use cloud indicated Data Security was their prime concern. When it comes to individuals the top concern in the IT arena is job loss and reduction of individual value.

There is no doubt cloud is bringing change. With the Internet and technology, we have a generation of users demanding access to their applications from their iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Android devices. We have entered an era where infinite IT power and information is available to a user on the smallest of devices, on the move and at an affordable price. As devices get more powerful, the Internet faster, the demand and supply of cloud applications will skyrocket and the power in the hands of the user will be greater than we have ever delivered before. Expect the marriage between mobility and the cloud to continue to grow.

So with this growth of cloud comes a change in skill requirements and job opportunities. One of CRN’s top 10 cloud predictions for 2012 is a growth in demand for cloud jobs as validated by an article in CIO magazine in early 2012. Cloud computing is and will have a major impact on skills across business, with IT being the most logically effected it will also impose itself onto roles in marketing, support and business roles in general. The demand for cloud-based skills already is showing signs of exploding. A recent report from Wanted Analytics, reported that hiring for cloud computing expertise showed a growth of 61 percent year over year. The cloud market is growing at such a pace that the number of job postings is accelerating and yet the talent qualifying for these roles is marginal.

Cloud isn’t all overcast and according to IDC ‘Spending on public and private cloud services is predicted to generate almost 14 million jobs worldwide between 2011 and 2015. More than one-third of cloud-enabled jobs will occur in the communications and media, banking, and discrete manufacturing industries.’  “For most organizations, cloud computing should be a no-brainer, given its ability to increase IT innovation and flexibility, lower capital costs, and help generate revenues that are multiples of spending,” said John F. Gantz, chief research officer and senior vice president at IDC. The top three industries expected to generate the most jobs from cloud computing are communications and media (2.4 million), banking (1.4 million) and discrete manufacturing (1.3million).

Cloud offers opportunities for those that embrace the new form factor and self-educate and certify themselves for the needs of employers today and tomorrow. More education is needed in cloud across all sectors to enable businesses to understand and utilize this important new technology to its advantage.

CompTIA’s Cloud Essentials certification is an example option that enables employees of varying roles to validate their cloud knowledge, take online training and exam condition testing, and differentiate themselves in the competitive job market. John McGlinchey,Vice President, Europe & Middle East, CompTIA commented “We have had a demand from the user market for a training curriculum with testing to support this rapidly growing new form factor. The demand and adoption is outstripping the skill base and it is key that individuals and businesses recognise and address this shortfall, before it becomes a serious issue for all concerned.”

More education is needed in cloud across all sectors to enable businesses to understand and utilize this important new technology option to its advantage and this need for understanding stretches past simply the border of the IT department. Expect to see more cloud courses and exams providing the market with the required validations in this new cloudy world. Ignoring cloud is no longer an option, utilizing it to your advantage is!

Dear partners and colleagues,

As you are aware we had a technical issue today  [Thursday], which affected a significant number of you - almost 4.35% of our partners experienced problems to some degree (some small but some much more significant).

I wanted to show how serious we are taking this by posting an open apology in relation to the email delay issue you and your users experienced today and try to address your understandable frustration by doing my best to openly explain the situation and assure you of the security and reliability of Maildistiller going forward. 

The delay in delivery of email today was linked to a problem we first identified on Monday and the workaround we put into place then to resolve this. However, ultimately this whole unfortunate scenario had one clear originating cause. 

In an effort to be as accommodating to partners & customers as possible, we did not activate  the rate limiting system which we built as a safety net to prevent exactly this kind of scenario. Whilst usability and security of our system is highest on our priority list, in an effort to be as flexible as we could for customers with regard to outbound sending limits we  have kept this rate limiting system disabled and set to monitor only. This allowed users to operate slightly outside the guideline limits  without any issue.  However,  several users have taken our trust and flexibility to an unacceptable level, bringing about the regrettable disruption for other users such as yourself.  The continued ability to send bulk email outbound via Maildistiller is a risk for the type of scenario we saw this week  and it is a risk  that we will not facilitate going forward as it is not just on us, but shared by everybody using Maildistiller. It goes without question to say that we are highly embarrassed that what we assumed was goodwill and flexible intentions  has caused our loyal customers and resellers such problems.

Looking after your interests is genuinely what is important to me and the team here at Maildistiller and we will continue to strive to do our best by you and to reduce the probability of something like this happening again. This can only be achieved by firmly activating the rate limiting system and hard coding it into the system from here on in.  Just as a reminder, the rate limits are on a per user basis, and there are two limits which apply: 100 emails per 10 minutes, and 500 emails per day.  

The full KB article can be viewed here: http://support.maildistiller.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/52/8/acceptable-use-policy-for-outbound-email

I, and the whole Maildistiller team, deeply regret letting you all down and we genuinely are truly sorry.  I am personally highly embarrassed by all of this,hands up, we made the wrong choice. We tried to serve the greater good by wanting to allow some customers the flexibility they needed, but evidently we left the door open to cause others hurt.  I will wholeheartedly work tirelessley  for you to ensure that unnecessary disruption such as that caused to you today  is prevented in future, and that we consider carefully the consequences of working to accommodate flexibility while protecting you. Please do not underestimate just how important each and every one of our users are to us at Maildistiller and striving to keep you all happy is honestly our ultimate objective. 

My unreserved apologies once again.

Any users who have been experiencing a slight delay with emails this issue has now been fully resolved by engineering.

We are now working diligently to ensure any mail that remains queued is delivered asap as mail flow returns to normal.

Once again thank you for your patience,

The Maildistiller Team

We are experiencing a small issue with our network but Engineering are on it and working fast so it should be sorted asap.

Be assured that no emails will be lost, they will be safely queued until delivery is possible, there's just a slight delay on things at the moment.

Thanks for your Patience,

The Maildistiller Team