Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Dec 10, 2008
Sometimes I wonder if the business is going forward, slowing or stopped. Today I realised that the last year has been a big step forward.
I decided to update the diagram for ClearEmail, this was created mid 2007 and had several boxes on it drawn in dotted lines to represent planned services, such as email archiving, upgraded email hosting platform and mail server monitoring.
Whilst updating this diagram I’ve realised that all of these boxes needed to be converted to solid lines, to indicate services we are now delivering. And as a bonus we have one service, email campaign management, that wasn’t even on the diagram!
However my elation was short lived when I realised that I had no dotted line boxes to put on the new diagram. What is it some people say, ‘if you’re not going forward you’re going backward’, time to think up some names for a couple of dotted boxes. 
That's not to say we're sitting still, ClearIM is having a major overhaul and we hope to be solving some clients web filtering needs early in 2009.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Oct 14, 2008
At Cleartext we've been using the @Mail platform from Calacode, chosen because they are an Australian company (so there's local support.. cough) and because their platform is in use by lot's of ISP types, like iiNet. @Mail has been very reliable, is easy to use and looks good. However we need to move on, with additional services, and Calacode aren't moving on as quickly as we'd hoped so I've been looking around for new platforms.
The obvious choice is Hosted Exchange, but then we'd have Microsoft branding plastered over everything and I'd be nervous about standards compliance and interoperability, so that's not on the list. What is on the list the excellent Axigen server, CommunigatePro and recently Isodes 'M' suite of servers. Our general thought process for the migration is that if we're going to do it then the new platform should bring new value via additional (chargeable) features or services.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Oct 10, 2008
It's good to see that some other people hold similar views to me about the Symantec acquisition of MessageLabs, see the similary titled article on internetnews.com. Also David Ferris of Ferris Research (specialist messaging analyst) says that MessageLabs technology is "no longer leading edge."
There's no denying that MessageLabs have a good core service, but they've made some questionable roadmap decisions, buying OmniPod a proprietary IM platform, and OEM'img archiving from Fortiva and business continuity from MessageOne. Yes it's true that we (Cleartext) OEM our core platform, but at least that is a single unified true SaaS platform.
Both of these are good solutions in their own right, but why buy when these types of solutions are relatively simple to build, after all they are 'just' email/data managment systems, far simpler to build than their core anti-spam and anti-virus services.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Oct 09, 2008
Sydney, Australia. October 8th, 2008
Soon after Cisco acquires Jabber Inc, the leading vendor of XMPP (IM and Presence) solutions, Cleartext co-founder David Banes is voted onto the board of the XMPP Standards Foundation.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Oct 08, 2008
News this morning that
Symantec has acquired MessageLabs which means one less brand in the competitive security SaaS space and more clients for Cleartext, those not wanting to buy Symantec. So this gives Symantec an interesting mix with the recent acquisition of PC Tools.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Oct 07, 2008
I'm convinced, but that doesn't mean I'm right, that if Jabber/XMPP had strong gateways to other networks early on it would have got bigger sooner, here's why.
Posted by: Administrator in Untagged on
Sep 20, 2008
NEWSFLASH!!
Huge news in the IM space today with Cisco announcing it’s acquisition of Jabber Inc the main vendor of XMPP IM and presence technology.
Posted by: Administrator in xmpp, IM on
Jun 13, 2008
We're please to announce that we've become a sponsor of the XMPP Standards Foundation.
XMPP has been around since 1999 and was/is commonly called Jabber Instant messaging, but it's much more than that now as social networks take off and architects are looking for a protocol to glue these systems together. XMPP has s shot at taking that space. We've been 'lurking' on the edges of IM/XMPP since 1999-2000 with our own EIM product called CipherIM which was unfortunately discontinued in 2003.
Keep checking at www.cleartext.net for news about our new XMPP platform later in 2008.
Posted by: Administrator in xmpp, technology on
May 13, 2008
Having followed XMPP since it's inception in 1999 and developed software around the platform, I can see some widespread activity in the greater web, rather than just discreet deployments as an IM platform.
The XMPP community is talking about social networks and how XMPP could have a role in connecting these in a pub-sub fashion. An interesting article (spotted by Tamir) on Social Media Today points towards this type of connectivity.
