Cemaphore Systems, which makes a product that lets corporate workers access their Outlook e-mail, contacts and calendars through their Google Gmail application instead of Microsoft Exchange, is now going to bat for Microsoft.
To accompany Microsoft's launch of Exchange Online Nov. 17, Cemaphore announced MailShadowX (MailShadow for Exchange Online), which synchronizes e-mail, calendars, contacts, tasks and notes between internal Microsoft Exchange servers and the Exchange Online Service.
The e-mail continuity and recovery application, intended for small and midsize businesses, is another bridge in the gap between SAAS (software as a service) solutions and classic on-premises software. The synchronization software also lets users access their Google Apps data, including Gmail contacts and Google Calendar, through the Exchange Online app.
Cemaphore President and CEO Tyrone Pike said he and his team built Exchange Online synchronization after Microsoft let him know the company was very interested in what Cemaphore was doing. It doesn't pay for a synchronization startup to take sides, so Cemaphore quickly found itself building a version of the MailShadow product for Microsoft.
Microsoft was interested in having people move from Google to Microsoft. So the product that was good for the goose is also good for the gander, in a sense. You can flip the thing around and serve two warriors.
However, Pike said that in the middle of doing the work to let users access Gmail data through Exchange, Microsoft told Cemaphore it needed better tools to help migrate data from its classic on-premises Exchange to the Exchange Online Service, launching to all businesses Nov. 17.
Accordingly, MailShadowX enables concurrent operations between on-site Exchange and Exchange in the cloud. This includes continuous data protection and instant data recovery should systems fail. The software will appeal to large service providers conducting large migrations on behalf of Microsoft.
For example, BrightPlanIT, a system integrator and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, embraced the product as one that will help businesses reduce infrastructure costs while delivering safe protection and recovery of e-mail data.
It's not hard to understand why. Normally, companies must have separate co-location facilities to mirror data they want saved. With e-mail continuity in the cloud, these co-lo joints, which normally require a bank of servers and storage, can become less expensive or even be rendered unnecessary.
MailShadowX is available now at a special rate of $29.95 per user per year until Nov. 30, after which it will cost $49.95.
In other Cemaphore news, MailShadow for Google Apps, or MailShadowG, is now ready for general availability. The software, which enables migration and replication of e-mail, calendars and contacts through Outlook, includes support for both Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Like MailShadowX, MailShadowG is available for $29.95 per user per year until Nov. 30, when the company will begin selling it for $49.95.
Incidentally, Pike also said MailShadowG now enables Exchange to run on Google's Android mobile operating system via the T-Mobile G1 smart phone.
