The Maildistiller Logo

True believers include 3t Systems, an MSP that offers a blend of IT and cloud services. 3t earlier today confirmed that it is Maildistiller’s first U.S.-based MSP. Separately, it sounds like Maildistiller has also signed up its first Canadian MSP — though details have yet to surface.

The Maildistiller service extends beyond anti-virus and anti-spam to include business continuity and real-time email failover. The company has partners in nearly 20 countries, and Maildistiller is also striving to help some of those MSPs become Master MSPs — whereby MSPs can manage both channel partners and direct customers.

Maildistiller Founder and CEO Colm McGoldrick is a veteran of BT and Microsoft, previously focusing on runtime development for such products as Exchange Server, SQL Server and Active Directory. He also focused on hosted CRM and SaaS from around 1999 to 2001 — roughly a decade before the cloud hype cycle began. McGoldrick helped Maildistiller to successfully engage UK- and Ireland-based resellers and MSPs, though the company has not disclosed its overall financial performance. I believe Maildistiller’s U.S. push will ultimately include employees and/or an office in North America.

Intense Competition

Still, Maildistiller targets a crowded market. Companies such as ExchangeDefender, Reflexion Networks and Spam Soap have built loyal channel followings in the U.S. And among some MSPs, there’s concern email security services will get commoditized as Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps potentially gain momentum in the SMB market.

To stand out from the crowd, Maildistiller has launched a reward program that offers $10,000 to successful MSP signups — though I don’t have details on how the reward program potentially works. Also on the competitive front, it sounds like Maildistiller will introduce an email archiving service in early 2012.

But rivals aren’t resting on their laurels. It sounds like Reflexion is set to raise some money to potentially accelerate growth. We’ve heard Spam Soap is preparing some surprises while continuing to leverage a close relationship with McAfee’s SaaS business (formerly MX Logic). And Exchange Defender has been mulling some new disaster recovery policies after experiencing a hosted Exchange outage in November. (Side note: ExchangeDefender VP of Network Operations Travis Sheldon went the extra mile by explaining the outage and next steps to readers in a recent blog.)

Like I said, Maildistiller faces entrenched rivals in the fiercely competitive email security market. We’ll track their progress.