Innovating to protect: How MailGuard and Microsoft partner to protect

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Fighting cybercrime is a top priority for many partners

Cybercrime affects nine of out 10 businesses, and an alarming six out of 10 SMBs go out of business within six months of a cyberattack. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Risks report, cybercrime cost the global economy an estimated $445 billion in 2016 – more than the market cap of Amazon, Facebook, or ExxonMobil.

Rewind to 2001 when Craig McDonald founded MailGuard, a company committed to developing simple and inexpensive solutions to manage unwanted email and web content. Since then, MailGuard has evolved as a pioneer of cloud-based email and web security solutions, first developed on AWS before making a strategic shift to Azure.

Many businesses believe traditional antivirus software will protect them from attacks. However, this is not the case. With over 205 billion emails sent each day and two thirds of those emails containing unwanted content, the need for comprehensive email and web security has never been higher. Traditional antivirus can stop known threats, but cybercriminals move at rapid pace, relying on the element of surprise. It can take hours or even days for antivirus vendors to identify and deploy updates to customers.

MailGuard is different to traditional antivirus. MailGuard stops fast-breaking zero-day attacks 2-48 hours faster than competitors.

Their cloud-based email and web security solutions employ smart Hybrid AI (artificial intelligence) threat-detection engines that anticipate new threats as they emerge.

As the threat of cybercrime continues to evolve, and as cybercrime networks continue to innovate, a sophisticated and adaptive cybersecurity response is critical for customers looking to protect themselves. Risks for business include reputational, legal and regulatory risks, serious financial consequences, and in the worst events business continuity.

Partner layers of security add customer protection

MailGuard is a proactive member of the Microsoft Partner Community, and is excited to partner with Viatek, a Microsoft Gold partner.

Ross Daniels, General Manager of Operations (Melbourne, Australia) at Viatek, says: “Viatek has confidence introducing our customers to MailGuard as a world-class global email and web security ISV, knowing that the MailGuard team is informed and supportive, and with a solution that’s so simple to set up and that solves a real customer problem.

Viatek needs to protect clients from zero-day email threats. Our reputation is dependent on it, and other vendors couldn’t stop the attacks, so we made the decision to implement MailGuard for all of our customers with a mass-migration. We had no hesitation knowing that the MailGuard team is available 24/7 and their staff are renowned for their excellent, proactive service.”

“Cybersecurity is such a major challenge for businesses today. We can have our clients set up with MailGuard in minutes, and as a cloud solution that works, it requires minimal support from our team. Plus, MailGuard operates seamlessly with Office 365 so we have confidence knowing that MailGuard develops its solutions to work so comfortably with Microsoft.

“Better yet, to tell our customers that a world-leading security ISV like MailGuard is hosted on Azure provides a compelling opportunity for Viatek to talk to customers about other cloud solutions that are truly transformative for their business.”

Strategically investing in a Microsoft partnership

Originally hosted on AWS and SoftLayer, MailGuard continued to innovate and expand its business. It was soon clear that they needed to make a shift.

“We all eventually saw that the promise of Azure and Microsoft made more sense for our business than AWS and SoftLayer alone. As Azure evolved, we came to see it as the better product and saw Microsoft as a better partner for our business – one aligned philosophically with the direction our company is taking,” says Jason Pearce, Chief Technology Officer, MailGuard.

The decision to switch to Azure was a critical one for MailGuard to continue scaling with new features. Azure possesses similar hyper-scaled cloud capabilities to AWS, and is better positioned to enable partners who are developing AI and machine learning cloud solutions.

MailGuard’s decision to switch to Microsoft went beyond swapping out AWS for Azure – they knew that to continue to innovate and grow, they needed more than a product: they needed a partnership.

“The benefits of partnering with Microsoft go so much further than just the product. Microsoft has an unparalleled global ecosystem that we can use to get the MailGuard brand out globally, and the infrastructure to reach as many customers with our solutions as possible,” explains Daniel McShanag, Chief Marketing Officer, MailGuard.

Isabel Boniface, SMB Marketing Lead, Microsoft, said the benefits go both ways.

“Working with MailGuard has been a demonstration of true partnership – they have gained value in the platform that we provide and also in our marketing and channel-building skills, but we as Microsoft have gained equally as we have learnt from MailGuard on what they value, how to best support their business and how to approach ISVs programmatically.

“Onboarding MailGuard to Microsoft is considered a best practice in marketing execution, creating a template for sell-with in our SMB Segment and has provided Microsoft with an excellent AWS compete case study. It has been a rewarding and very exciting ride for all involved.”

Making the most of their Microsoft partnership

For a company with a mission to protect as many users from the predations of cybercrime as possible, partnering with Microsoft and plugging into the ubiquitous Office 365 platform helped MailGuard reach beyond what was previously possible with AWS and SoftLayer.

In a recent speech, the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia, complimented MailGuard as “among the leading cloud and email security solutions anywhere in the world”, and praised the relationship between MailGuard and Microsoft, saying: “The agreement with Microsoft represents an enormous growth opportunity, one that will deliver more jobs and unprecedented economic opportunity.”

As MailGuard continues to develop its newest security solutions including a next-generation AI “artificial neural network”, the computing power of Azure, and Microsoft’s philosophical commitment to driving AI innovation, promises continued support as both companies look to the future. MailGuard’s technology creates a neural map built on associations between activities and attacks to rapidly identify and adapt to evolving threats.

Microsoft’s Azure consumption will continue to grow significantly with technological increases. MailGuard’s goal is to become the number one driver of Azure consumption globally and has already made strides towards that goal. Having started at $0/month Azure consumption, MailGuard is now heading towards $30,000/month. The aim is to bring this up to over $1 million by the end of the year.

For partners, MailGuard brings a wealth of experience and powerful IP to the ISV community – opening opportunities to cross-sell and work together to provide secure cloud solutions for the end user. MailGuard’s solutions offer more than security and peace of mind – the way MailGuard has used Microsoft’s partner network to rapidly expand its reach is a powerful testament to the value of Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.

For partners looking to make the switch to Azure, MailGuard’s perspective offers a powerful endorsement:

“We have done everything we can to fast-track our Microsoft partner relationship. Microsoft was a clear choice for MailGuard, aligning with our business with its passion for the cloud, its commitment to innovation and engineering excellence and its relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction.” – Craig McDonald, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, MailGuard.