If you are good enough in business you get to develop great relationships with some impressive people. If you succeed at that, you make some remarkable friends that enrich your entire experience. I believe we’ve demonstrated that to a great degree with this weeks SPAM Show. As I originally stated when we started doing the show, it is all about friends joining and talking about the trends in our business. This week we were lucky enough to get Joe Panettieri from MSP Mentor to discuss MSP business trends and developments.

In particular, we addressed many of the developments and the surrounding economic state we find ourselves in. We all discussed where we are seeing growth and where we are seeing shrinkage, opportunities and threats.

This has by far been the most entertaining podcast I have ever heard or been a part of. If you don’t agree and don’t laugh along there is no hope for you – but if you’re busy, overwhelmed, concerned or anywhere in between – listen to the show #4 and let us cheer you up!

Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp

Notes: Podcast submitted to iTunes and will be available this week on your iPhones and iPods. In the meantime, you will have to use the feed directly or listen straight from our web site. Second of all, huge thanks to Karl @ SMBBooks for hooking us up with a conference bridge!

Note 2: The SPAM Show now has it’s own landing page for longer show notes, sponsorships and better distribution. Check it out, let us know if you’re interested in sponsoring us: http://ownwebnow.com/spamshow

Dear Clients, Partners and Friends,

I wanted to offer you a sincere statement about the state of Own Web Now Corp at this time.

First, the great news: We have posted yet another record quarter with record high revenues, profits and user counts. We are the largest we have ever been, and all products are currently at all time highs. We are on track to release half a dozen new products in 2009, and the feedback over the past few months has been overwhelmingly positive as we’ve introduced massive improvements to financial reporting, service management and support.

The good news is that, despite (or rather, in spite of) the poor economy, we are poised for record growth in 2009. We have worked very hard to introduce the kinds of products that users simply cannot live without and we will introduce new, more affordable solutions in 2009.

All the good news aside, things are far from perfect at Own Web Now. If there is one area we have struggled in over the years, it’s been consistency. This unfortunate problem comes as a result of rapid growth and, at times, overworked staff, poor management and issues with process control. Computers are easier to manage than people, and in an environment where people, objectives, metrics and software change rapidly, the problems become very apparent. We have worked very hard to address this issue, develop additional processes and assure that the improvements we have made over the past few months are sustained and not empty gestures soon to be forgotten.

Over the next few months I will be introducing you to the ITIL methodology we have implemented at Own Web Now. I will also be going in depth about our process, our reporting, our controls and our inputs.

For starters, our documentation efforts are now managed by the very same people that provide support online, in person and over the phone. As you may imagine, we answer certain questions repeatedly. Staff is now allocated time to pick repetitive questions, provide them directly to me and vote on the most complete and comprehensive answer. I believe this will create a reliable training platform and more connected community around our services.

Our communication platform for the most part has consisted of this blog. We have extended this in 2008 with the Network Operations site and in 2009 we have added Twitter as well as regular newsletter mailings. Encompassing it all is a new OWN podcast bringing you not just the news from us, but our industry as a whole. People discover, consume and respond to information in different ways. There is no unified way to alert everyone, so we are responding to the mediums that our clients and partners follow. Podcasts are not for everyone but an equal number of people absolutely despises whitepapers and network maintenance alerts. As a last resort, for the ultra-busy, your PAM is always there to answer any questions you may have. If you want to follow our every move, that’s possible too. For everyone in the middle we have a number of solutions as well. It’s a mix, much like our partner and client base.

The past few months have been all about documenting and improving the company as a whole. As you know from working with us, we’ve done this in the past with our infrastructure. We have worked very hard to get to this point, and we’ve had to let some bad habits die and some grow up, both as a technology and as a company.

I appreciate your continued business. I hope you see these improvements as positive. We not only believe in the future of our business model, but that the numbers are showing that it is the hottest thing available right now. As you trust us with your and your clients’ network operations, I want to assure you that we are committed to remaining the leader in this space and helping you grow through these hard times.

Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek
CEO, Own Web Now Corp

We will be conducting a phone system upgrade tonight at 10 PM EST – 2 AM EST. During this time frame we will not be available for contact over the phone and all urgent requests should be handled through the support portal at http://www.ownwebnow.com as usual.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and hope that you will find the new features coming with the new system worth the wait.

Many of you have been looking forward to this day, and I am glad to announce the launch of OWN Service Manager dashboard for centralized management of all our services:

You can access this service in our Support Portal right now by clicking on Service Manager tab at the top. If you don’t see this tab, you are not a Client Admin (someone on your staff can give you access)

The entire system is centralized and linked in our process: billing, invoicing, support, documentation, fulfillment and projects are all tied to this service panel. This means that we can integrate all of these services with third party PSAs, offer our support direct to your clients under your own brand/label… I hope this gives you an idea what we are going to work on for the rest of 2009

Welcome to 2009! We’re half-way through the first month of the year, and things are going great. Thank you for a fantastic 2008, for your feedback, for your development support and, most of all, for your money. Own Web Now is a great company because its partners and clients invest in us by helping us deliver the exact software and services that are expected. I will not lie… 2008 was tough. We straightened out billing. We globalized half a dozen services. We added staff across the board and positioned the company to be by your side for years.

Now it’s payback time. My biggest regret in 2008 was that I did not spend enough time talking to you- my fellow partners and clients.

Today we are changing all that with the launch of Own Web Now’s SPAM Show. This podcast is meant to do two things:

1) Bring you up to speed with developments at Own Web Now

2) Provide you with the expert opinion on today’s top tech trends

Whether you own your own technology business or are responsible for a network of 64,000 users, time is scarce. Staying on top of all the technology developments and getting various opinions and experiences is a very difficult and time consuming task. Thankfully, I work with many intelligent people at Own Web Now and have a lot of friends in the IT field that talk to a lot of techies, and we will do our best to present a concise review of what you should be thinking about. (This used to be the most popular and most demanded quality of the SBS Show – people love to learn but they also like to be entertained and to save time.)

So to find out what is on my mind and what my friends are working on… just tune in and listen. The first show is online already:

 Download OWN’s SPAM Show #1

Featuring Mark Crall from Tech Care Team and Stuart Selbst from SecureMyCompany, Inc. They discuss trends in cloud services, Kaseya, Google Reseller program and more.

Mark and Stuart are my go-to folks in the community and true leaders in our market. To find out more about them you can follow their blogs: Mark Crall’s blog. Stuart Selbst’s blog.

Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp

This subject has been heard and seen all over our support portal today as our global customers pause in wonder that we are working during Thanksgiving.

Yes, yes, yes, we are always open. No, we never close. As a global company doing business with partners in over 150 countries over 5 continents, we never take a break from working for you.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and every fourth we put in one more.

To all our partners around the world showing the same level of dedication you show to your clients, we wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and thank you for your business!

ExchangeDefender Outlook 2007 Addin has been released and is available for immediate download at www.exchangedefender.com. We have designed this new software to help you interact with the ExchangeDefender security service without leaving the comfort of your Microsoft Outlook 2007 interface. No more waiting for reports, no more trying to guess the ExchangeDefender portal password, no more hunting for statistics or forwarding SPAM – we have simplified the whole process of interacting with the service that keeps your mailbox clean.

• What can you do with ExchangeDefender Outlook 2007 Addin? Just about everything you can do from the web portal!
• You can view the realtime SPAM and SureSPAM quarantines right in your Outlook at a click of a button.
• Manage your trusted senders list.
• Quickly locate messages by searching for subject or sender.
• Report SPAM to improve filtering or send email to our team for troubleshooting.
• View domain statistics and see what ExchangeDefender is doing.

Of course, every aspect of the software is brandable to reflect your corporate image, we’ve even included documentation templates that you can use to inform your users of this new solution that is provided at no additional cost!

As many of you are well aware Own Web Now Corp global network operation center (NOC) is based in Dallas, TX. Today will be the most significant test of our network infrastructure impact due to inclement weather. Hurricane Ike is posed to hit Dallas, TX with the eye going directly overhead:

Our network operations center is staffed 24/7/365 and today is no exception. We are staffed better than usual for the Saturday’s 2nd and 3rd shift to monitor and manage any unusual events that may come as a result of Hurricane Ike. We do not expect significant network or wind damage as the data centers we operate from are standalone structures with poured cement and among the most element-proof buildings available.

What we are curious to find out is the state of flooding and power. Below is the map of our neighborhood.

The areas in blue represent our data centers and the big blue block in the center is our global network operations center at 1950 N Stemmons Frwy, also known as Infomart. All our data centers are well above the ground and can easily sustain several feet of water without impacting network operations.

Our primary concern is with the proximity of the Trinity River which is one of the largest public works in the history of Dallas and also the main flood protection solution for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. All the green “rivers” you see on the picture above are part of the Trinity River Corridor Project designed to take excess rainwater and guide it away from the sensitive downtown Dallas area. This system has never been tested by as large of a hurricane as Ike and we anxiously await to see how everything plays out. None of the diesel generators or operations are even close to the ground, and the lowest point of entry is some 8′ feet off the ground.

We are also anxious to see the performance of the new electrical grid monitoring service recently deployed in Dallas. You can read more about this system at The Dallas Morning News:

In February, an Oncor engineer, using the new technology, noticed unusual grid activity.

A worker went to the problem spot, noticed a loose bolt at a power line connection and tightened it.

Without the new technology, Oncor wouldn’t have known about the loose bolt until it fell off, power went out, and a customer called to complain.

We look forward to the test of Managed Power As A Service.

Given the fears and uncertainties we are very confident in our choice of Dallas as the headquarters for Own Web Now Corp. Every geographic location has its geopolitical uncertainties and tradeoffs and we feel that Dallas offers the best mix of corporate friendliness, network availability and redundancy, skilled workforce and reliable utilities. We are confident with our choice and our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Texans this weekend as we weather this storm. After all, god blessed Texas

Sincerely,

Samantha Ellison

Chief of Operations, Own Web Now Corp

It gives me great pleasure to announce that we have completed the upgrades to our global offsite backup network this weekend and that all the new features are now online. Make sure to take a moment and download the latest agents to take advantage of all the new awesome things our systems are able to do for you.

Continuous Data Protection

The absolutely coolest, most profitable and most desired feature available in the new release is the continuous data protection. This feature allows the backup software to make snapshots of data as it is being changed on the users PC or on the server. Backup jobs can now be executed in 1 minute increments if necessary.

Why is this absolutely phenomenal for you? Because it ope s up a profitability margin in the solution that nobody else can compete with you. For example, one of our competitors in this space requires you to purchase expensive hardware to do CDP, to pay for it up front and to pay for offsite backup quota as well. Not with Own Web Now – there is just one monthly fee, allowing you to choose your own hardware, even the affordable network-enabled USB hard drives from Western Digital MyBook Series (750GB market price around $200).

Another one of our competitors in the SMB space has a requirement ratio, so you have to buy far more offsite backup space than you actually need. Offsite backups are for critical documents, but what about a competitive advantage of having more robust, local backups? Well, that doesn’t make sense for them because they don’t make money. With Own Web Now there are no offsite/onsite ratios, you can start with our lowest plan (10GB offsite, $16/month) and install the agent software on all the office PCs and create local backups with CDP for every workstation in the company.

We are absolutely thrilled with this new feature!

Seeding

Starting with September 1st, we now offer seeding services for $100. If you have a client that has a ton of data to offsite or you just don’t want to tie up their Internet connection for the weekend we now offer the ability to seed the backup and bring it over. This has been a huge area of discontent for our users with larger backup sets, that it sometimes took forever to get initial backup to Own Web Now and then random failures and expirations didn’t quite line up.

So let’s say goodbye to all those problems. Here is how this works. When you order the offsite backup let us know that you want to send us a backup on a hard drive. We will UPS you a hard drive to plug into your server/workstation and save a backup on the hard drive. Put the USB drive into the included envelope and give it to your UPS guy. It will arrive at Own Web Now Dallas or Los Angeles NOC in a day or two, we’ll restore it and from that point it’s just your daily changes being pushed over the Internet.

Brand New Interface

The interface in the new agent is stunning, on par with the competitive backup solutions. I think you will really enjoy it.

Advertising Support

Never miss an opportunity to market to your own clients. With the new release we will accept ads that can be displayed to your own user base. Since the agents can be installed on multiple PCs this gives you more exposure than just your logo!

I sincerely hope that the new agent gives many of you not just a more remarkable offsite and onsite backup solution, but also provides you with the profitability margin that nobody can compete with you on.

Effective tomorrow, August 14th, 2008, we will no longer offer competitive transfer promotions for service providers who switched their accounts from Postini/Google, MX Logic or Message Labs to ExchangeDefender.