MX Logic Expands Global Reach With Multitenant Managed Security Platform

Executives say that the new platform will extend the company's reach worldwide with a range of offerings including e-mail, Web, message archiving and disaster recovery, allowing MX Logic to provide more comprehensive coverage to a wider range of customers.

Meanwhile, the new facilities in London and Hong Kong expand on the company's existing facilities located in North America and Japan.

"What this global expansion means for us is an opportunity to broaden our portfolio for our partners," said Ryan Walsh, MX Logic vice president of product management. "Many of our North American partners have customers abroad, so this expansion allows them to take advantage of that."

MX SecureNet is capable of managing an array of messaging and collaboration security services by connecting them to a single policy engine, incorporating Email Defense Service, Web Defense Service, Message Archiving Service and Disaster Recovery and Message Continuity Services into one integrated platform.

Walsh said that for channel partners, the new SecureNet integrated platform addresses challenges faced by numerous partners wanting to jump on the managed services bandwagon. More partners now are embracing cloud computing, but often stumble because "the platform part of that is really hard to do," Walsh said, adding that among the most challenging things for emerging SaaS partners were problems managing a multitenant environment.

"Simple things, like how do you actually bring on millions of users? How do you actually manage millions of users who have different policies and make that work without slowing down their performance?" Walsh said.

In short, the SecureNet platform eases the way for partners -- especially those new to the managed services space -- by taking the burden of a multitenant environment away from the partners and eliminating the management of multiple point security services and vendors, Walsh said.

"From our partners' perspective, we believe that partners need to find a reliable vendor that understands their need to deliver reliable services that can scale," Walsh said. "As more and more customers and partners adopt these services, we really believe what's important is the reliability and performance to do that efficiently."

The SecureNet platform provides an answer to those challenges with better communication and visibility into their customers' networks, Walsh said. For example, the built-in Cloud Threat Intelligence software allows the e-mail and Web services to communicate with each other for a greater overview of a customer's security environment, executives said. That enhanced communication allows partners to provide more complete protection against zero-hour threats as well as sophisticated Trojans, worms and Web-based attacks designed to steal personal and financial data.

In addition, the recent expansion to London and Hong Kong allows the SecureNet platform to be deployed more rapidly and efficiently around the globe. The Denver-based company plans to open additional facilities throughout Asia, Australia, South America and parts of the Middle East and Africa, and executives say that the company has the ability to easily open new facilities within 90 days without huge infrastructure costs.

And as part of the launch, MX Logic provides comprehensive training and offers multilevel support on its SaaS platform for partners, depending on their needs. Some partners prefer to offload the support component in order to sell the services, while others can offer their customers support in addition to services.

Another challenge the platform addresses is scalability, executives say. The security suite started with e-mail protection services and subsequently was enhanced with Web security technologies to protect against a slew of Web 2.0 threats used in countless blended attacks, executives said. And the platform also has the ability to incorporate new technologies in order to counteract rapidly mutating and evolving threats.

"As threats evolve, you don't want to sign up to a service that's stagnant," Walsh said. "To secure the e-mail stream and not the Web stream is not enough."

MX Logic currently conducts about 85 percent of its business through the channel, but looking forward, executives say that they plan to grow that figure to 90 percent by year's end.