Google Postini Migrations: Update for Google Apps Security Partners, Rivals
As the Google Postini brand begins to fade away, Google Apps partners and rivals are seeing a lot of activity with email security migrations. The latest evidence comes from Reflexion Networks, Spam Soap and TestudoData — three very different companies that have expertise in the cloud-based email security market.
Google in mid-2012 announced a plan to phase out Postini while introducing similar services in Google Apps. Numerous rivals and partners immediately weighed in with their own migration and support plans. That chatter is starting to heat up again.
In recent weeks, Reflexion has seen a dramatic growth in migrations from Google Postini to Reflexion’s own email security services, according to sources close to the company. Some of that migration buzz surfaced at the IT Nation 2012 conference last week in Orlando, Fla, which attracted more than 1,000 VARs and MSPs.
Meanwhile, Spam Soap recently launched a “Pay to Move” offer for Google Postini customers. The campaign is designed to assist VARs that want a Google alternative. Channel partners that move any Postini account over to Spam Soap will receive three months free on that account.
Spam Soap knows the IT channel well; the company essentially is a spin-off of inhouseIT, a top managed services provider (MSP) in Southern California.
Still, Google also has its share of loyal channel partners. TestudoData, for one, has a complete FAQ that helps customers to understand Google’s strategy and potential paths forward.
The key takeaway for VARs, MSPs and cloud integrators: Whether you partner or compete with Google Postini, there is money to be made with Postini migrations.
The development cycle of
The development cycle of Postini since being adquired by Google has been atrocious. I am BDM at Spamina so you could say I am biased but don’t take my word for it, just ask around resellers and clients using Postini. Basic things such as unlimited sender approvals, a cluttered user interface and Google clearly thinkingo of it just as a google apps feature is driving users away. Postini MSPs and VARs coming to us looking for our cloud-based Email filtering solution, obviously we are extremely happy with this trend at Spamina, so much so that we have our own migration offer in place tailor made for them.
Hi J,
Thanks for weighing in.
Hi J,
Thanks for weighing in. Overall Talkin’ Cloud’s coverage is pretty much down the middle of the road on this topic. On the one hand, Postini has a pretty loyal following of VARs and MSPs in its partner program. But no doubt there are cloud rivals — also with growing cloud partner programs — that have successfully recruited some Postini customers onto alternative platforms. Please keep us posted as Spamina evolves its partner program in the months ahead. And thanks for reading Talkin’ Cloud.
-jp
Thanks Joe for your feedback,
Thanks Joe for your feedback, again, some limitations in Postini such a whitelist length limit to 4000 chars it is pretty incredible at this time and age, as far as I can tell they don’t seem to support full IPv6 filtering as yet, to me it show lack of focus on security, Postini to Google it’s just a feature, not a product. I do agree that Postini has some good loyal VAR/MSPs but the key here is many of them had signed with Postini before Google acquired it, back then the product in my opinion was pretty good but things have really changed post-Google. If you are an MSP/VAR and were specializing on providing Email Security to your clients sitting on Exchange, you may still serve them but it is clear now that going forward Google is going to push for Google Apps and that is where their roadmap is going, they are not gunning for providing the best Email Security service, they are after Exchange customers. In my owns experience MSPs and VARs are not too pleased with that.
Please, let me add that for those who are looking for alternatives we do have an interesting package in place for Postini resellers, you can find out more here:
http://www.spamina.com/eng/postini_migration_offer.php
J: Thanks for the back and
J: Thanks for the back and forth with me. Our goal is to really push to get the most comprehensive info out to VARs, MSPs and CSPs. We’ll keep listening and look forward to updates.
-jp