How Does ExchangeDefender Compare?
How does ExchangeDefender compare to others in the industry? Check it out for yourself here!
ExchangeDefender is an Internet-based message hygiene and business continuity network that can secure and save your business by providing AntiSPAM and Antivirus protection, Web File Sharing, Web Filtering, LiveArchive, Encryption, Archiving and Compliance, Reporting, and so much more. ExchangeDefender is a complete mail solution, and nothing reinforces that statement more than LiveArchive. For the ultimate peace of mind, LiveArchive provides always-on, real-time, secure web access to your email when your mail server is down, disconnected or undergoing maintenance – all without sacrificing your corporate identity. The best part of about LiveArchive is that it is included in the price of ExchangeDefender. So, you receive the protection and reliability of LiveArchive without the additional cost.
ExchangeDefender is completely partner-centric and works hand in hand with our partners to not only provide hosted solutions but to maintain a successful partnership. Together with the world-class support and product offerings and features for the cost, ExchangeDefender is a head above the rest!
All of our products and services come all-inclusive and backed by our 24x7x365 Technical Support. All of these features and support come without any software to install or maintain. Keep your mail server running as it is and deploy ExchangeDefender in less than 5 minutes at the fraction of the cost of other antivirus licensing alone.
ExchangeDefender has so many wonderful benefits and features, if you are interested in knowing more or have any questions, please let us know! How do we measure up for you? – Let us know!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
Shockey Monkey–SOAP Callback
This week our development team here at Shockey Monkey has finished the SOAP Callback framework and has published this new release to all portals. This new framework enables you to configure automatic code level responses when certain conditions are triggered. Current the only supported triggered events are related to tickets (create, update, close). Over the course of this year we will expand the available list of triggerable events as demand for them increases.
The most elegant design feature of this entire framework is the dynamic interface structure that allows virtually any SOAP interface to communicate with our software. Let me briefly walk you through the process for configuring the callback mechanism.
Settings -> Callback
The first time you visit this page, it will seem fairly empty but these two fields you should notice at the top. Simply provide the remote SOAP WSDL location and press “Validate”.
Now, the system will examine the URL and fetch any valid methods that exist inside of the requested module. You should notice the section below; it will become populated with new fields.
You should now see that you have three sections.
One for (Create Ticket, Update Ticket, and Close Ticket).Select a method from the dropdown list. You will notice these are all valid methods from the request API that we defined above in the previous step.
Once you have selected a method from the dropdown list, you will notice additional (parameter) fields. These fields are loaded dynamically depending on the parameters available in the provided SOAP API.
Note: One thing to keep in mind is complex types. If your method requires complex parameter types such as (arrays, objects, etc.) they will not be supported at this time. Basic types like (strings and integers), should be used mostly for parameter types.
The text box next to each listed textbox is where you will enter the desired value for this parameter. If you would like your method to use TICKET variables (“which is most likely”), they are provided in the dropdown menu to the right of the text field. Click the list and select the desired variable and it will prefill that variable into the text field to the left.
Also keep in mind each trigger is optional. You don’t have to assign a method for every section, only the ones you want to use. After you have finished assigning each of your methods and their corresponding parameters, click “Save”.
That’s it, callbacks are now enabled and you should begin to see the results!
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com
2 More Days!
*Attention!!! There are only 2 more days left of our Valentine’s Day promotion!
You don’t want to miss the chance to get a great pricing discount on our best full featured offerings. Take advantage of this offer for our Hosted Exchange solutions for one flat, all-inclusive rate per mailbox per month. You can offer your clients a hosted messaging solution that is flexible enough for their varying needs today and tomorrow, and robust enough to enable you to turn a profit on every mailbox every month.
With Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 from ExchangeDefender, data is stored on our globally-redundant infrastructure and accessible via Outlook Web Apps, Outlook desktop client, and mobile devices. Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 from ExchangeDefender is protected by the world-class ExchangeDefender security suite, so in addition to being reliable, messages will be free of malicious code and safe for consumption anytime, anywhere, and also comes with the LiveArchive service built right in.
Hosted Exchange Essentials is a budget-friendly security solution that covers the basic needs of many small businesses.
Whatever your clients’ needs are, you can get your foot in the door and start or continue building a strong relationship with the powerful combination of Hosted solutions and ExchangeDefender. Now you can offer your clients an attractive combination of rich features, affordability, security and flexibility on our globally-redundant infrastructure that even most large enterprises cannot build in-house.
Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 – $8.00/mailbox/month
Hosted Exchange Essentials 2010 – $6.00/mailbox/month
Be sure to use the coupon codes that are associated with the offers to receive the promotional pricing.
Stay tuned to your mailboxes and also our ExchangeDefender Promotions page, www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php to always be on top of all of the great offerings available to you!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
ExchangeDefender Password Synchronization
Password synchronization was first implemented inside of ExchangeDefender about 2 months ago. It was also at the same time we released a new version of XDSYNC that also included a password synchronization option. This has been a little confusion among a few partners on how exactly this works and what to expect with password synchronization.
There are two primary configuration models, which are described below.
Hosted Exchange & ExchangeDefender Synchronization.
If you have a Hosted Exchange mailbox with ExchangeDefender, password synchronization happens automatically. This is because both the Exchange mail account and the spam protection layer both exist within servers that we own/operate. So anytime a password is changed through our management portals, that password is now updated in both places. After a chance occurs it may take up to 5 minutes for the Hosted Exchange password to update across our servers.Private Server & ExchangeDefender Synchronization.
If you operate your own private Exchange mail server and use ExchangeDefender as your SPAM protection, password synchronization will require the XDSYNC tool. XDSYNC will automatically push new accounts into ExchangeDefender minutes after they are added to the mail server. You also have the option to enable password synchronization. In this case, it’s a one way push and will update password changes from within ExchangeDefender back down to your mail server. Keep in mind anytime a change occurs it will typically take about 5 minutes for that modification to be applied to the server.
Hopefully this will help define the two configuration models a little better and what you can expect with each configuration.
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com
Choosing Your Customers!
Can you choose your customers???
Yes, you can choose them, not always the other way around. You can choose your customers with your pricing, your content, your promotion, your marketing strategies, and your product line.
When choosing your marketing efforts, and thus your customers, you should consider:
Based on what you are offering, how much does this type of customer need you/depend on you?
How difficult is this sort of customer to find/reach?
What does this type of customer need?
How valuable is a customer like this?
How demanding will this customer be?
It’s not a matter of who can benefit from what you sell. It’s about choosing the customers you’d like to have and helping them benefit from what you have to offer.
By asking yourself these questions you can better attract the types of customers that you would like to work with.
At ExchangeDefender, our efforts have brought us a partner base that we truly enjoy working with! All of our partners know what to expect from the partnership upon their signup. We clearly state and outline what they get as part of partnering with ExchangeDefender. Our terms of service, TOS, outlines the way that our technical support and business support works, and the best way to get assistance when it is needed. Also, all of our products and services are heavily promoted, documented, and made available for partners to have access to and we provide materials which make it easier for you to be profitable.
Also, we make it easy for customers to choose us. We work closely with partners and are available for help and questions 24x7x365! Also we offer great deals and promotions that help our partner base benefit! Check out www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php to keep up with promotions that we are running! Currently we are running the Valentine’s Day Hosted Exchange and Exchange Essentials Promotion!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
ExchangeDefender Essentials Launch Webinar
Last week we launched ExchangeDefender Essentials to our partner base and unveiled the new products, the new pricing, the new business model behind it (and the ability to sell it directly) as well as a lot more details. This is a private preview for our partners and the official press release will follow on March 1st.. but for now you can check out the video and be ahead of the curve.
Download ExchangeDefender Essentials Launch Video
Or you can order it today in the Service Manager and be way ahead of the game. The feedback so far – on the price alone – has been tremendous. We look forward to adding you to the ExchangeDefender family and giving you yet another way to compete in the marketplace and earn more business.
Don’t give your clients any reason to say no!
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
vlad@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x500
(407) 536-VLAD
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone from ExchangeDefender!!!
Everyone check your mailbox! We love our partners and we want to give you all a special promotion for this Valentine’s Day!
We are running an Exchange promotion! For a limited time, we are offering Hosted Exchange 2010 and SharePoint 2010 for $8.00/mailbox and Hosted Exchange Essentials 2010 for $6.00/mailbox. The promotion will run from February 14th – March 14th and be valid on any and all new accounts that are signed up during the promotional period when using the coupon code given.
Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 Includes:
*Microsoft Exchange 2010
*Microsoft SharePoint 2010
*ExchangeDefender:
*SPAM & Virus Filtering
*Web Filtering
*Web File Sharing
*Encryption
*Compliance Archiving
*Live Archive Business Continuity
*Outlook License
Hosted Exchange Essentials:
*Microsoft Exchange 2010
*ExchangeDefender Essentials
*SPAM & Virus Filtering, Business Continuity
Check your mailbox for a postcard or go to www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php for more information and to get the coupon code.
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
Rockerduck Maintenance
On February 9th – February 11th 2012 the ExchangeDefender staff performed maintenance on the Rockerduck cluster in which two separate individual ‘outages’ affected client access on the late half of the evenings and early half of the following morning on February 9th -10th and February 10th-11th .
On the eve of Feb. 9th 2012 (~11:30 PM Eastern) we began upgrades on a failed/failing VPN device that is used to connect ROCKERDUCK:DAL and ROCKERDUCK:LA active directory and internal communication between sites. During the upgrade we began to notice random network related events in which communication seemed saturated and sluggish and randomly affected across the entire network. After various attempts (and configurations) to bring the new VPN router online we determined that the new VPN device was occasionally malfunctioning and flooding the network with ‘dead packets’. Unfortunately the massive flood of packets from the VPN device caused the Database Availability Group (DAG) on ROCKERDUCK to lose communication between nodes and eventually lose quorum. Once quorum was lost between nodes all databases between both sites were automatically dismounted as the DAG was considered unhealthy to Exchange. For the next few hours we worked to restore service to RD clients by replacing the failed VPN routers with our backup VPNs (new vendor) and restoring communication with Los Angeles. After communication was re-established clients were able to access their mailboxes. This outage affected all clients and lasted between the hours of midnight and roughly 3:15 AM.
On the eve of Feb. 10th (~10:30 PM Eastern) we began work to finalize the VPN communication by consolidating both VPN devices in California to the one backup vendor VPN device. The reason we elected to replace the ‘working’ VPN device in California was due to the fear of the abnormal workings of the similar VPN device in Dallas. As part of our protocol to ‘down’ a data center in Exchange hosting we paused SMTP services on Rockerduck. After replacing the VPN device in California we resumed all services (including SMTP) and mail resumed normal flow. Around 5:30 AM Eastern we started to receive alerts about back pressured queues in Rockerduck which would amount to delivery delays. Upon investigation it was discovered that the issue was mail delivery between the EDGE server network and the HUB server network on RD. After two hours of investigating the issue internally (and opening a case with Microsoft) we were able to determine that our course of action would be reapplying the SP2 update to the edge networks. Once SP2 was reapplied to all EDGE nodes mail delivery returned on ROCKERDUCK by 9:15 AM Eastern.
Finally there were about 5% of users who were left in a disconnected state through Outlook but had service through OWA (and some through active sync) between Saturday and Sunday as the database their mailboxes were housed was moved to Los Angeles for the content index database in Dallas to rebuild for RDDB9. Service was restored to these users by noon Eastern.
Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com
This Week in Development…
This week the development team here at ExchangeDefender has been working towards internal fixes and upgrades across several platforms. The next few months are going to be jammed packed with a lot of exciting additions, which will help us assist you and your clients more efficiently. We’ve also made several additions and corrections inside of the Shockey Monkey service manager module.
A few areas we addressed internally were in regards to account creation and error handling when it comes to provisioning Hosted Exchange accounts. We have addressed the rare instances where an account(s) would get stuck in the “pending” state upon attempting to create a new mailbox. We were also receiving reports of several issues with the service manager when using “Internet Explorer”; we have corrected these issues as well. Essentially we’ve been trying to smooth the entire ordering process out and help make new account creations and modifications a more pleasant experience.
In regards to new features inside of the service manager, users now have the ability to add or remove distribution group account aliases. What this feature does is allow the distribution group to receive email from more than one address and still distribute the message as if it was sent to the primary email. We decided to implement this feature now because it became a request that kept growing and growing as more and more partners were creating distribution groups for their clients.
I’m looking forward to discussing the future products and changes that will occur within the next few months and helping shed light on the technical aspect of how these new products will function throughout you every day routines.
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com
Three Reasons Why the ExchangeDefender Launch Webcast is Going to Be Awesome!
1.) How much time do you and your team spend each month administering your client relationships that can’t be billed back to them? That is a number good business owners are constantly working to drive down. You’ll find out how we have eliminated the most difficult part of managing ExchangeDefender products and services.
2.) Whatever the specific size and scope of your clients’ needs, the ExchangeDefender suite including Essentials can help you deliver just the services that your clients really need at an unbeatable price. You’ll find out how you can make a bigger margin while delivering “right-sized” solutions.
3.) Understand how delivering built-in free business continuity can permanently change your client relationships for the better. What if you could add this value to every client engagement without increasing your costs?
Join us for the ExchangeDefender Essentials launch webcast on Thursday, February 16th at Noon EST.
Register here: http://www.exchangedefender.com/blog/2012/02/essentials-launch/
Do you find this information useful?
If you’d like a lot more in-depth discussion about the cloud and how it affects you and your clients, visit Looks Cloudy http://www.lookscloudy.com where I blog daily about the adoption of the cloud in SMB, conduct live webcasts and podcasts with industry leaders, and much more.
Kate Hunt
VP Community Development, ExchangeDefender
kate@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x777