It's a special day for our friends over at German vendor MailStore Software!

To celebrate an incredible 15 years in business, they've come up with an exclusive offer through the month of November for anyone purchasing a new MailStore Server license.

From 15th October to 15th November 2021, all new MailStore Server license purchases will receive an additional 3 months of free upgrade cover and support in addition to the selected term.

If you're going for a 1-year option that's 15 months for the price of 12 (or an extra 25%)!

German email archiving vendor MailStore has just announced version 13.2 of their popular archiving solution for M365, Exchange and other mail platforms. The two highlights of this release are a major increase in performance and a significant step in scalability.

Version 13.2 of MailStore Server and MailStore Service Provider Edition (SPE) see an increase in the advised upper limit for user numbers on a given installation, enabling you as the IT service provider to widen the audience you can talk to about archiving to include larger customers now as well as SMB's.

In a move that is sure to disappoint some, Microsoft announced at its Ignite 2020 event that Exchange 2022 will only be available for purchase through a subscription. Exchange alternative without a subscription model While Microsoft has been following the market trend of most software manufacturers and switching to a subscriptions model, until now Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Project Server had all avoided the fate of Office 365.

Have you spent months, or even years deciding on the perfect security stack for your clients? Has your team been painstakingly implementing best security practices across your estate to keep your customers safe and secure? One more question… Could all of your good work potentially be undone in seconds by an employee clicking a rogue link and welcoming a cyber-attack with open arms?

It really does feel like a very long time indeed since we've been able to entertain the idea of getting together at an IT event (or even wanted to!). We're in the privileged position where this now looks like it will be possible, and I can't think of any better event to mark our own return to meeting with real-life 3D people again, than the annual CompTIA conference held this year in Liverpool St, London.

Ransomware is right up there as one of the worst types of malware your clients are likely to come across.

Not only is there the risk of being locked out of computer systems or important databases, but there's the additional risk of public backlash and damages to reputation. 

As you'll have no doubt seen in the press - if the breach is large enough, ransomware attacks can easily become high-profile media events and the ransom demands can be incredibly tricky to manage.

If they do pay the ransom for their data, not only is it an admission of defeat, but it can also be a significant financial hit.

What's more, there's really no guarantee they’ll gain access to their systems again.

Once the scammers have their money, there isn’t anything but goodwill compelling them to return what was already taken. 

Zen Software's Managing Director, James Steel recently joined CompTIA's Tracy Pound to share his insights and tips on how MSPs can improve their success with marketing.

Tracy is founder and Managing Director of Maximity, a UK-based technology solution provider and chairwoman of the CompTIA board of directors.

As the Covid-19 pandemic hit, there was a big shift in marketing across lots of industries, but especially within the technology and MSP market.

James and Tracy discuss how the need for remote working and the reliance on managed services and solution providers tipped overnight and the opportunities that came about for MSPs and the buyer's journey.

Despite the many advances in digital communication, email still reigns supreme as the bedrock of most business interactions. Although numerous communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack have grown in importance, email remains the most popular and efficient way to communicate for your SMB customers.

There's good reason for this of course - email chains and archives allow us to easily organise and keep track of the back-and-forth flow of conversation. Headers and subjects allow for quickly searchable keywords, and important document attachments can be easily retrieved through a cursory examination of the inbox.

As a managed service provider (MSP) or managed security service provider (MSSP), keeping the companies you're working with safe from cyber threats is your absolute bread and butter. It's at the core of what you do. It’s your responsibility to keep up to speed with the latest threats, to wade through the sea of stats, opinions, materials and demos for new tech that the vendors (and distributors like us!) send your way, and to make the important decisions on behalf of your clients. You've no doubt been doing this for years, but recently there's been a concerning plot twist.

As the trusted IT provider for your clients, one of the 'perks' of your job is that you’re the defacto go-to authority for all manner of (sometimes fairly dry) topics. Email retention policy quite possibly ranks high on the 'dry' scale, but it’s a topic both you and (and they!) really do need to be aware of. The mailboxes of your customers are rapidly growing treasure troves of useful, important and sensitive information, and that will continue to be the case for years to come. This makes them ticking time bombs if not cared for in the right way.