Comcast Works on Single ‘SmartZone’ Comms Dashboard with Zimbra

May 07, 2007 — IDG News Service (Boston Bureau) — Comcast has turned to open-source software vendor Zimbra to help supply some of the technology behind the U.S. cable provider’s upcoming free SmartZone communications dashboard for its broadband users.

The idea behind SmartZone, announced Monday, is to give the vendor’s customers a single place where they can manage their communications through a suite of software tools, according to Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury.

SmartZone users will be able to send and receive e-mail, listen to their voicemail messages online and forward that information via e-mail to others, send instant messages and video instant messages and merge their contacts into one address book. Users will also have the ability to personalize their individual SmartZone dashboard with the weather, news reports and video clips of their choice, she said.

Eventually, Comcast may look to link SmartZone to its existing TV planner application and allow users to set alerts for the programs they want to watch and then remotely record those programs on their digital video recorders.

The free SmartZone service will be available to users of Comcast’s broadband Internet, cable television and phone services later this year via the Comcast.net portal, Khoury said.

Zimbra is providing the necessary unified messaging and collaboration software, while Plaxo is responsible for the address book service. Hewlett-Packard will lead work on the design, creation and management of the SmartZone communications center. The new dashboard will also include e-mail security software from Bizanga, antispam and antiphishing tools from Cloudmark and antivirus software from Trend Micro.

“It was very important to pick partners who were best in their class,” Khoury said. “Partners who could come to market quickly with product and work at our speed. We feel like we’ve assembled the best team.”

While Comcast and Zimbra wouldn’t discuss the details of the tie-up, such as whether the relationship is in any way exclusive, the move could net the open-source vendor millions more users, albeit indirectly.

Comcast currently has 24.2 million cable customers, 12.1 million high-speed Internet customers and 3 million voice customers.

“This is one of the most exciting things that’s happened to the company in its history,” said John Robb, vice president of marketing and product management at Zimbra. In January, the startup announced it had over 6 million paid mailboxes globally and millions more users of its open-source groupware.

The move is also part of a strategy laid out by Satish Dharmaraj, cofounder and CEO of Zimbra, late last year. Dharmaraj said the open-source vendor’s ultimate method of competing with collaboration software players like Microsoft and Google will be by eventually selling all the commercial versions of its products indirectly. That plan would leave Zimbra free to focus fully on software development and support, he argued.

Zimbra already has strong partnerships in place with broadband service providers outside of the U.S. to distribute its software, notably Orolix in Brazil and Tata Broadband in India. Dharmaraj said back in November that Zimbra was in talks with U.S. companies to establish the same kind of relationships.

Other stories by China Martens

Copyright 2006 IDG News Service, International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.

Earthlink Selects Cloudmark Authority to Protect More Than 5 Million Subscribers From Messaging Abuse

Leading Internet Service Provider Chooses Cloudmark Authority for Accuracy, Efficiency and Improved Customer Experience; Cloudmark Solutions Now in Use at Seven of the Top 10 ISPs/Carriers

San Francisco, April 30, 2007 – Cloudmark, Inc., the global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, today announced that EarthLink, one of the nation’s leading Internet service providers (ISPs), has selected Cloudmark Authority™ to help fight messaging abuse. EarthLink will apply Cloudmark Authority software at the network level to help protect EarthLink’s more than 5 million subscribers from spam, phishing and other messaging threats. Today, Cloudmark’s solutions are implemented at 80 of the world’s largest service providers and mobile operators, including seven of the top 10 ISPs in North America. Cloudmark protects more than 180 million mailboxes worldwide against spam, phishing and viruses.

“EarthLink is committed to evaluating and implementing technologies that help safeguard consumers against Internet abuse and the combination of Cloudmark’s accuracy and the efficiency of its solution can help us achieve that goal,” said Stephen Currie, director of product management at EarthLink. “Cloudmark’s next-generation messaging security platform is designed to respond quickly to e-mail-borne threats and variants and can help us ensure that consumers have the best online experience now and in the future.”

According to statistics from the Cloudmark Global Threat Network, which checks more than 3.5 billion messages each day, messaging abuse, such as spam, phishing and viruses, now constitutes up to 95 percent of all e-mail traffic on the Internet. Messaging abuse has cost and revenue implications for all service providers, as it consumes infrastructure resources and degrades consumers’ Internet experience. Cloudmark’s unique combination of Advanced Message FingerprintingTM algorithms and first response data from the Global Threat Network delivers more accurate and efficient protection against existing and emerging threats in any form, format or language. After deploying Cloudmark Authority, service providers can benefit from dramatic savings in server, storage and other resources. Cloudmark’s industry-leading accuracy and speed of response also results in higher customer satisfaction as subscribers see fewer unwanted messages in their inboxes.

“EarthLink is a leader in providing secure, reliable connectivity and personalized messaging services to millions of subscribers,” said Hugh McCartney, CEO of Cloudmark. “Cloudmark is tuned to the needs of service providers like EarthLink who demand the most accurate and scaleable solution for filtering hundreds of millions of messages per day. From high volume spam that clogs messaging infrastructures to viruses and targeted phishing attacks that threaten subscriber privacy, Cloudmark offers service providers a complete messaging security solution.”

About Cloudmark Authority

Cloudmark Authority is the industry’s only end-to-end messaging security platform, providing complete inbound and outbound protection from all forms of messaging abuse—spam, phishing, viruses—on a single platform. Cloudmark Authority leverages Advanced Message Fingerprinting to continuously block harmful messages and variants in real time. Authority was architected for service provider environments that demand efficient processing of large volumes of messages. Unlike traditional solutions that use processing-intensive rule sets, Authority scans messages for all forms of abuse using an in-memory cache of verified fingerprints that is updated every 45 seconds. Cloudmark’s approach enables wire-speed processing performance while only utilizing a fraction of the resources of traditional systems.

About EarthLink

“EarthLink. We revolve around you.” As the nation’s next generation Internet service provider, Atlanta-based EarthLink has earned an award-winning reputation for outstanding customer service and its suite of online products and services. Serving over five million subscribers, EarthLink offers what every user should expect from their Internet experience: high-quality connectivity, minimal online intrusions and customizable features. Whether it’s dial-up, high-speed, voice, Web hosting, wireless or “EarthLink Extras” like home networking or security, EarthLink connects people to the power and possibilities of the Internet. Learn more about EarthLink by calling (800) EARTHLINK or visiting EarthLink’s Web site at http://www.earthlink.net.

About Cloudmark

Cloudmark, Inc. is a global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, delivering the industry’s fastest, most comprehensive and most accurate real-time spam, virus and phishing protection for fixed and mobile networks. Cloudmark solutions combine highly sophisticated Advanced Message Fingerprinting™ technology based on innovative, high performance algorithms and a Global Threat Network consisting of trusted reporters in 163 countries to provide security intelligence and filtering at all points in the messaging infrastructure. Cloudmark solutions currently protect more than 180 million mailboxes and more than 80 of the world’s largest service provider and mobile operator networks, such as Tele2, Thus/Demon, Cox Communications, NTT Communications, SprintNextel, Virgin Mobile and UPC Chello. Cloudmark is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. For more information about Cloudmark, please visit http://www.cloudmark.com.

Media Contact

Marisa Dulyachinda

Schwartz Communications, Inc.

cloudmark@schwartz-pr.com

(415) 512-0770