iOS7 implementation of Multi-path TCP promises seamless mobility and perhaps more

Here is a really fascinating article and I picked up today on the implementation of Multipath TCP in the new Apple iOS 7.

What on Earth is Multipath TCP? Put simply it's the future of a smarter Internet. Yes, if you can believe it the Internet is about to get just that bit cleverer and being an old TCP/IP hack I think this is the most exciting thing in the protocols development since Path MTU discovery :-)

So what's the big news?   It means that you will be able to switch a stream of data on your phone. mobile device or wearable tech' and switch the data stream seamlessly from 4G to 3G to the wireless in your office and back again without losing the connection. so, you could be talking on your phone on 3G walk in to your office and have the call switch seamlessly to the nearest wireless hub same thing for video streams, location-based services or anything else that will stream over the Internet.

While for many this may all seem rather 'low level'  Multipath TCP  play a large part in the future  development of the Internet heralding a whole new era of 'smart' Internet and I foresee that it will have a massive impact on the structure, function & performance of the global infrastructure including in  delivering seamless load balancing.

South African Hosted Email Security Update

Back in January we reported that Mimecast had taken control of the South African market after having grown at an extraordinary rate for the previous 18 months, We 1st identified Mimecast as a rising star 3 years ago when they 1st came to the notice on the world stage taking market share in Europe, Australia & North America.  

Mimecast has definitely been an organisation to watch over the past two years. We think its continued growth is indicative of both its presence as a growing force within the worldwide cloud-based email security services landscape as well as the uptake in remotely managed product offerings within the South African market

Market penetration for cloud-based email technologies is particularly high in South Africa at 33%. In fact, the country is up there with first world territories such as the US,UK and Scandinavia, all well known for their openness towards new technologies and services.

Six months on the July 2012 BackChannel reports shows that Mimecast's market share growth has continued to accelerate, extending its installed base by 170% over 2 years, a strong performance even against an overall market growth in South Africa of a not-too-shabby 40%.

We think the vendor landscape in South Africa is a microcosm of ICT worldwide in general, showing that focus is almost certainly the key to winning in a technology marketplace. The fact that Mimecast focuses on what it does best. Competitors have fallen to the wayside due to a lack of emphasis on core service offerings; in comparison, Mimecast has continued to offer premium products and services which meet customer needs. That’s why they are the market leaders in South Africa and increasingly on the world stage.

BackChannel Publish 9th Email Security Services Report

At BackChannel we use unique search engine technology to reveal actual Cloud and IP services usage & identify real market trends amongst over 1 million organisations worldwide.  Every 6 months we use this 'hard-numbers' research to report on to produce twenty definitive reports detailing the performance of the world's leading service providers including those delivering e-mail security/unified e-mail management services.   

Who's up, who's down, regional & sector trends, new market entrants, plus the impact of M&A and of the release of new products (Webroot, you know we're watching you.) 

Emerging blinking into the daylight after several weeks of marathon number crunching we're ready to share with you a few of the insights we have gained after publishing this our 9th major survey of the industry.  Over the next few weeks we will be releasing both samples of the data itself and some of our thoughts about this dynamic and growing market.

So, if you're interested in Cloud based services be sure to bookmark this blog now.  If you're interested to know more about the Email Security Services Reports then please contact me directly and one of us will get back to you.

Hosted email security: The 2011 market report - Now in it's 5th year

Your opportunity to find out who's using these services, who's winning market share and who's falling behind.

Now in it's 5th year BackChannel's flagship survey has been expanded again to cover the use of hosted email hygiene services amongst a million organisations & businesses in 17 key countries.

The reports covers 40+ service providers including all your favourites; Messagelabs, Microsoft, Google/Postini, Webroot and many localised service providers you may not have heard.

It's been an interesting and turbulent year find out who's up, who's down and whether those $100s of millions spent on acquisitions in this sector are paying off.

A must read for executives, investors and any business involved in the delivery or purchase of email security products and services.

Interested in sourcing a copy then drop me a mail and either me or one of the BackChannel team will get back to you.

Start the New Year with a little light rock

Here at BackChannel we hope everyone's new year is off to a great start.
I thought we'd start off as we mean to go on with a little light entertainment.
Not exactly music of the spheres, more music of the servers. But, very entertaining.
This year we are researching the use of Virtualisation Technologies in commercial datacentres.  So say tuned...

Mail Security: Market Growth Stalls in 2009

As we prepare for our end of year reporting and analysis season; some early news is that the BackChannel search engines have identified striking new information on the use of hosted security market.

Over the last few years these services delivered by the likes of market leaders Messagelabs, Postini and MXLogic have seen a 20% CAGR. We now measure overall customer numbers as static.

Despite having seen some of the most valuable/expensive buyouts during recent years; hosted security services are at last starting to feel the pinch.

Messagelabs acquired by Symantec 2008 for $695m
Postini acquired by Google 2007 for $625m
Surfcontrol acquired by Websense 2007 for $400m
Scansafe acquired by Cisco 2009 for $183m 
MXLogic acquired by Macafee 2009 for $140m

A lack of uptake by 'new-new'  customers has impacted sector growth. There also appears to have been a fair amount of churn amongst the existing install base, as vendors price aggressively for service contract renewals, in what has been pretty much a zerosum game in 2009.

Actual individual services amongst major organisations have dropped 1.5% to 2% depending on the geography and level of local competition. The good news for service providers and their investors is that this is mostly due to organisations consolidating their email domains, so installed base of user seats is holding steady.

Fortunately for the acquiring companies it's less of a downturn in the market, more of a stall and we predict that these figures will start to rise in the latter half of 2010 as confidence returns and the vendors switch tactics.  This remains no-brainer technology, economic circumstances don't make it any less so.


In the current climate we believe vendors should be looking at mopping up exercises  - pulling in rogue divisions of large customers that have done their own thing. Consolidating is always a good way for a customer to save money, and a supplier to add value.

If you're interested in pricing for the January 2010 Hosted Mail Security Market Report from BackChannel email info@backchannel.co.uk for more details.

Rackspace Customers in Bristol

We have been improving the mapping in our Market Intelligence product. Here's a screenshot showing a selection of Rackspace customers in the Gloucester area.
In the software you can drill down and see details on both the customer and the services they buy.

THUS Customerbase: Geographic Distribution

THUS Telecom (whose recent acquisition by C&W went almost un-noticed) were famous for having a strong base of customers in Scotland and the North-West. So here is a picture of our GUI showing their customers in London area plotted on a Google Map.

Google polishes up Chrome to support GoogleApps

Whilst it has been slow to take off in Europe and the rest of the World, GoogleApps for Business have been as huge success in the US. In Mid 2007 we electronically surveyed 550k US companies to see who was using GoogleApps mail services and it hardly hit the Radar.


Re-running the Survey in Mid 2008 the results couldn't have been more different. GoogleApps had arrived, and the demographic is right in the heart of the US business, companies with between 20-250 employees.

You're probably all Google Chrome'd out by now but a significant part of the Chrome announcement is that it has an application development kit called Gears that allows Web App Developers; like ourselves, Salesforce, etal, to build Off-line features into our products, making them portable.

For Google, this means that users of GoogleApps for Business will soon be able to compose a Gmail that includes a GoogleApps Spreadsheet sitting on a plane, and have it sync up and send as soon as they are connected to the Internet again.

Accenture bid to run a ViNO in a brewery

Thanks to one of our readers for pointing me at this. The VANCO story continued to gather pace with speculation rife that bids could be expected and on Sunday this appears to have been confirmed, with IBM and Accenture named as separately interested in a bid for the failing Virtual Network Operator.

Hmm, Accenture & Telco - as Accentures primary customers include some of the worlds largest "real" Telco's they may find that a successful bid would put them in direct conflict with some there largest customers.

Where is the next VANCO

In May 2008 respected stock watchers The Motley Fool rated Savvis as the worst stock in the world like Vanco they offer VNO services and boy have they had a rough year.

I thought it was a little harsh; at least they have some of their own network real estate. But we're already pulling reports off our systems on Savvis' customers, alongside those of VANCO, so watch this space.

Overall, we think 2008 will be a difficult time for VNOs large and small, they are effectively margin traders, and the big network providers seem pretty hostile to them just as their customers are putting the elbow on them to keep their prices down.

Many of the larger players have started offering VNO style services themselves and I am picking up quite a lot of undisguised glee from the bigger ISPs.

Google take stake in Unity TransPacific Fibre

Google has taken a stake in the Unity TransPacific super fibre linking the US Westcoast to Japan.

This is the Google that purchased a 270,000sq ft interconnect facility in New York in 2005. The Google that has a division engaged in acquiring dark national, international and metro-fiber. Is investing heavily in consumer WiMax, a mobile phone platform, mobile applications, oh and spectrum

Still think Google is a search engine and advertising company? Read on...

In 2006 Google was recognised by the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN) as an ISP, when it was granted a large allocation of IPv6 addresses.

At the time of the allocation ARIN's director of external relations , Richard Jimmerson, said. "Any organization that has received (IPv6 addresses) has met that criteria -- and that would include Google,"

Note: IP v6 will enable the Internet address space to several trillion, trilion addresses, more than enough to absorb the current 4 billion IPv4 Internet addresses several times over. They must be planning an awfully big grid network, or is there more to it than meets the eye?

Nervous now? Get in line behind Microsoft; a queue is forming.

Managed Hosted Service in USA: Comparitive strength of vendor

As part of a wider survey of the use of Internet services by over 500,000 organisations in the USA we surveyed the Messagelabs/Postini/MS Frontbridge market for Managed AntiSPAM - AntiVirus services.

Courtesy of our friends at ManyEyes (IBMs visualisation business) Here is something for you play with; just click on the charts title.



The Control is the normal distribution of organisations by state.