September 11, 2012

2 Min Read
Excel Micro, Major Google Apps Partner, Offers Postini Guidance

By samdizzy

Google is not abandoning Postini customers. In reality, the search giant is transitioning Postini customers to a new control panel with additional features. That’s the word from Michael Amadio, director of marketing at Excel Micro, a Google partner that wants to eliminate the “large amount of FUD circulating” about Google’s email security strategy. (FUD is short for fear, uncertainty and doubt — a tactic some vendors use to win business from other vendors.)

A lengthy list of email security companies have introduced migration plans to help customers and partners jump from Postini to alternative services. Many of those plans emerged when Google said it would phase out the Postini brand and introduce those security services in Google Apps. In some cases, rivals have asserted that Google is abandoning Postini users.

Google states otherwise and sees security opportunities ahead for Google Apps partners. Excel Micro, a major Google Apps and Postini partner, agrees with Google’s assessment. In fact, Excel Micro is helping Postini resellers and customers with migration plans.

In an email to Talkin’ Cloud, Excel Micro’s Amadio wrote:

“There has been a large amount of FUD circulating saying that Google is abandoning their Postini clients.  This is not true, they are simply transitioning everything into a new control panel with additional features.  All prices are remaining the same and clients are still able to use their existing email client and email server and are not being forced into using Google Apps for Business.

Resellers falling below Excel Micro are not immediately affected by the transition. Once we have more information it will be shared with our resellers. Excel Micro has been actively contacting our resellers to let them know of the news and present them with the best option/road map that work for their company and their clients. Even with the recent announcement we are still setting up new resellers daily and they are provisioning new accounts on Postini.

Google is however ending their Service Provider Edition (inbound filtering only) that a decent amount of ISPs are offering. The resellers that are offering that solution will not be transitioned to the Google Apps interface. We are currently working with these ISPs to offer an alternative solution that is similar to Postini, at a similar price point, and to keep their clients on a robust hosted email security solution.”

Regardless of which camp you’re in, one thing is for sure: Channel partners and customers are nearing an inflection point with Postini. They’ll need to make some adjustments to move into the world of Google Apps — or move to another security platform. That inflection point means consulting opportunities for channel partners.

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