Zimbra is the leader in open source email and collaboration with over 50 million paid for mailboxes worldwide, this is the core technology we use to power our hosted email platform.

Pinpoint Securemail is our flagship e-mail security platform with 6 years of R&D and innovation now processing over 400 million mails per month.

Integration of Zimbra and Pinpoint Securemail was required for various reasons, namely saving resources on our hosted email platform, better security and reporting for our customers.

Zimbra and Pinpoint Securemail are based on a range of different open source products so the integration was easily achieved, here’s what we did…

Zimbra modifications

Amavisd was set to listen on an additional port that does not perform spam or virus checks.

/opt/zimbra/conf/amavisd.conf.in

$inet_socket_port = [10024,10026];   # listen on this local TCP port(s) (see $protocol)
$interface_policy{'10026'} = 'MSCHKD'; # Email has already been determined as SPAM
$policy_bank{'MSCHKD'} = {
  bypass_spam_checks_maps = [1],
  bypass_banned_checks_maps = [1],
  bypass_header_checks_maps = [1],
  remove_existing_x_scanned_headers = 0,
  remove_existing_spam_headers = 0,
  remove_existing_spam_headers_maps = [0],
};

Header checks in Postfix to ensure mail from Pinpoint is sent to Amavisd port 10026 if “X-Spam-Flag” header is set

/opt/zimbra/conf/postfix_header_checks.in

/X-Spam-Flag: (YES*|NO*)/ FILTER smtp-amavis:[127.0.0.1]:10026

Modify Postifx to ensure we only accept mail if SMTP Authentication is used or if the sending host is on our trusted network (Pinpoint)

Note: This will stop semi intelligent spammers who think they can just add an “X-Spam-Flag” header to bypass our security checks

/opt/zimbra/postfix/conf/master.cf.in

smtp     inet  n       -       n       -       -       smtpd
        -o smtpd_etrn_restrictions=reject
        -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_mynetworks,permit_sasl_authenticated,reject

Integration for “Junk” and “Not Junk” Zimbra option to train Pinpoint Securemail Bayesian database

/opt/zimbra/conf/salocal.cf.in

use_bayes 1
bayes_auto_expire 0
bayes_store_module Mail::SpamAssassin::BayesStore::SQL
bayes_sql_dsn DBI:mysql:bayes:[hostname]
bayes_sql_username [username]
bayes_sql_password [password]
bayes_sql_override_username [username]

Pinpoint Securemail Modifications

Pinpoint uses MailScanner at the heart of the system, so making changes to add the headers required was simple.

We chose to use the “X-Spam-Flag” header after analyzing how Zimbra puts spam in the Junk folder.

non.spam.actions.rules

To: *@domain.com deliver header "X-Spam-Flag: NO"

spam.actions.rules

To: *@domain.com store deliver header "X-Spam-Flag: YES"

spam.high.actions.rules

To: *@domain.com store deliver header "X-Spam-Flag: YES"

Recap what we have achieved

• No spam and virus checks performed locally on our Zimbra hosted email platform
• This resulted in reduced server resource utilization
• Tight integration with our users training spam and ham for the benefit of all Pinpoint Securemail customers
• Outbound e-mail is still scanned for spam and virii
• If mail is received from another trusted network that is not Pinpoint, spam and virus scanning will occur

We hope the info above gives some insight on how to better integrate Zimbra with your favourite e-mail security platform.

But first things first. What has been improved?

Release Request Decline Reasons

We realised that while the new release request mechanism works incredibly well, the original requestor might be left disgruntled when his release request is declined. Primarily because they do not know why. And if it has been declined, this requestor might fall back to the old faithful method of emailing an admin, negating the benefits of the release request mechanism.

In response, we have added a new feature that when the “Decline” option is selected for a release request, the admin has the opportunity to select one of four pre-populated decline reasons or enter their own specific reason for the decline.

At least now, when an administrator does decline a release request, the original requestor is kept informed as to why, easing administrator workloads by reducing queries as to why it was declined.

Performance Enhancements

There have also been a number of performance enhancements, some already active before this release, that accelerate the generation of reports as well as the speed of the Dashboard data loading.

In addition, with this release, we have improved the performance of loading the Message Listing view with release requests so that administrators can get to them quicker and action these.

Shiny new stuff

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, lets get to the most exciting aspect of the new release: Mailbox Management. This module has been specifically designed to allow you to control settings for addresses received by Pinpoint for your domain.

Using Mailbox Management you can do two things to the list of addresses provided:

• Deactivate a mailbox known not to actually exist on your domain. This provides you the ability to restrict mail being delivered to your domain. After all, why should mail be sent to your domain, potentially being processed by your mail server, using your bandwidth, etc, if no one is actually going to see it.

• Mark an address as an alias to another address. If you have sales@domain.com, you can mark this as an alias to salesguy@domain.com. The added benefit of doing this is that instead of salesguy@domain.com getting 2 Daily Junk Mail reports (or more) because of his own account and the aliases, he will get one, unified Daily Junk Mail report showing the details of all mail blocked on his address and all the aliases linked to him.

We hope you that these additional enhancements make administering your email security service that bit easier and hassle free. And as usual, if you would like to provide feedback or discuss the changes, please feel free to do so in the comments or email dev@synaq.com to chat to the development directly.

For more detailed information about this release, please refer to the release notes.

The new features that the next release will provide, make it possible for mail recipients in an organisation to finally see what mail, if any, that was intended for them has been blocked and in addition communicate the need for these messages to be released to a domain administrator in a more streamlined and consistent process. These same mail recipients can alternatively release these messages themselves, alleviating work load on the administrators.

How does all this work? Read on to find out

Mail Recipient Release Mechanisms

The average person that receives mail through Pinpoint is not registered as a user on the interface. And for many organisations, registering every user to give them access to Pinpoint is a labour intensive task that is never finished; people leave and join companies all the time and adding yet another sign-on, sign-off process is not a task we want to burden our clients with.

To overcome this, we have developed a reporting mechanism that domain administrators can activate for a domain (we will look at these settings shortly), whereby these regular mail users on a domain will receive a daily email that lists all blocked messages, if any, that were addressed to them for the previous day.

The report that the end users receive lists all spam blocked by Pinpoint as well as all Policy Blocked messages (blocked due to reasons of size or attachment types, etc). Alongside each listed blocked mail entry is a link that the user can click labelled “Release”.

Depending on the settings the administrator has activated for the domain, this link can do one of two things:

• The message can be immediately released to the intended recipient/s.
• The message can be flagged as a “Release Request”, which will require an administrator to either accept or decline.

From the average mail recipients point of view, that is all that they will see; either released or requested for release.

Domain Administrator Settings

There obviously needs to be some control over how all this works, and these settings are controlled on a domain level. As a Domain Administrator, you can alter these settings.

Going to the Organisations module, and opening the “Edit Domain” section, you can then select which of your allowed domains you want to edit settings for.

Within this view you will see a few options related to Quarantine Report settings. The first option, “Domain administrators recieve daily quarantine reports for this domain”, remains unchanged and will affect the ability for domain administrators to receive the summary quarantine reports that has been available for a long time now. Nothing there has changed.

The next option, “Mail recipients at this domain receive daily quarantine reports”, affects the new feature for the upcoming release. If this is enabled, your regular mail users will receive a daily report (waiting for them when they come into work in the morning) with a list of the previous days blocked mail as described above.

The next section labelled “Mail Recipient Mail Release” has one option in it; “Mail recipients can release their own mail (if unchecked can only request release)”. If this option is enabled, the regular mail recipients can immediately release mail to them from the report by clicking the “Release” link in the report they get with no interaction needed by an administrator. If, however, this remains off, clicking “Release” in their report will flag that message for release instead and need to be actioned by an administrator.

In summary, for this feature to work for your domain/s, you need to enable the “Mail recipients at this domain recieve daily quarantine reports” option, and if you want users to release their own mail immediately also enable “Mail recipients can release their own mail (if unchecked can only request release)”, or not if they can only request a release.

Actioning Release Requests

There have been a number of features included to make communicating the fact that there are release requests waiting for an admin as clean and simple as possible. The first of these to note is our notification message that appears if any messages have been requested for release.

Once a mail recipient has requested a mail item for release, the Pinpoint interface will do regular checks, as well as with each page load, and then notify the logged in administrator about any Release Requests. Clicking the notification message will then load the Message Listing module with the correct filters in place to view all current Release Requests.

Each message that is waiting to be actioned has two options available to it; Accept or Decline. The Accept option will release the message to the original recipient/s of the mail and unmark the message as a Release Request (and also send an email to the original recipients that the message requested for release was released). The Decline option will simply unmark the message as a Release Request and send an email to the original recipients that the request was declined.

Thats it! All that an admin needs to do is go down the list, Accepting or Declining as he sees fit.

We Love Your Input

We would love to encourage our customers reading this to comment on this blog post if there are any questions or suggestions they would like to share (we read them all!). Alternatively, you can also email dev@synaq.com to communicate with the SYNAQ development team.

Johannesburg-based open source software as a service company SYNAQ’s excellent performance in the interim SA FastGrowth 100 index is a clear indication that open source and software as a service (SaaS) is rapidly moving to mainstream within the South African corporate environment.

So says SYNAQ managing director Yossi Hasson, who points out that in the five years tracked by the index, SYNAQ experienced top line revenue growth of 184%, making it the sixth fastest growing company of those tracked in South Africa by AllWorld Network.

The report described the performance of the list’s ranked companies in 2009 in particular as “stunning” in the way it defied “the sluggishness of the global economy”.

“That SYNAQ was included in this grouping is an unambiguous affirmation of the fact that corporate South Africa is wholeheartedly embracing cloud-based services and open source software.

“This trend is being driven by companies seeking alternatives to the exorbitant infrastructure costs, vendor lock-in and software complexity they have been subjected to for so long,” Hasson adds.

The AllWorld “South Africa 34/100 Fast Facts” list – an interim list intended to give early economic indicators of South Africa’s entrepreneurial growth potential – was published earlier this month (to view the list go to: http://www.allworldlive.com/south-africa-100/winners/34-100).

The list, which is endorsed by Harvard University Professor Michael E Porter, a leading authority on competitive strategy, is made up of companies that reach AllWorld’s international standard for competitive fast growth companies. The rankings are based on sales growth between 2006 and 2009.

• Protection from spam mail created by malware that may exist in your organisation due to the Outbound spam filters.
• Control over content types and size allowed to leave your organisation via email.
• Detailed reporting abilities on all mail coming out of your organisations domains.
• Basic outbound mail queue viewing to determine if mail you sent is still waiting to be delivered.

We do also have other plans that will leverage across our Outbound service, so watch this space. Oh yes … we have plans (cue evil laughter)

Open vs Closed – Which is more secure?

Yossi Hasson (SYNAQ) Brian Timperley, Grant Thom and Louis Jardim (BBG SP) outside BBG SP offices in Bryanston.

This follows the recent launch of SYNAQ’s channel partner programme for ISPs, ISVs and system integrators.  The programme enables SYNAQ’s Partners to provide cost-effective, value-added, cloud-based solutions to their customers.

According to BBG SP Sales Director, Grant Thom, the company provides underlying infrastructure and services for all communication requirements beyond the LAN. This is provisioned in a completely network agnostic format.

“We provide capacity on best-of-breed national and international infrastructures, to create uniquely bundled services that are applicable to a client’s needs. Access to business critical applications in the cloud is reinforcing the business drivers for high-speed, redundant connectivity.

“After careful evaluation of cloud messaging services, we found SYNAQ to be the market leaders. Not only are they highly respected, but continuously add value far beyond the traditional mail messaging boundaries. In alignment with the BBG SP value proposition, the partnership with SYNAQ therefore provides our clients with a quality cloud messaging solution,” he said.

SYNAQ CEO Yossi Hasson said the company has developed a strong and redundant messaging infrastructure over the past five years which partners like BBG SP could leverage to provide their customers with essential messaging services. These are based around SYNAQ’s flagship products, developed on Open Source platforms: Pinpoint SecureMail, a messaging hygiene offering designed to eliminate spam and malicious viruses from customers’ networks; Pinpoint Continuity which provides full redundancy for mail infrastructure; Pinpoint Archive, providing tamper-proof unlimited storage email retention and SYNAQ Cloud Messaging Suite, a full messaging and collaboration solution powered by Zimbra.

“We are delighted that a company of BBG SP’s reputation and experience has chosen to partner with SYNAQ and include our solutions as part of their value proposition to their customers,” Hasson concluded.

SYNAQ Spam Index Q1 2010

(SYNAQ Spam Index – Q1 2010)

There are a lot of great articles on the web talking about spam’s impact on the environment, and one of the things that comes across immediately when you read them, is the negative impact when spam protection is not implemented for a user. Based on research findings it has been determined that the greatest environmental cost from spam (energy consumed, Green House Gas emissions and so on) is generated by users reading through junk mail, deleting junk mail, and looking for false positives (clean or valid email).

Here are some key findings (2008 McAffee/ICE Report Data):

• An estimated worldwide total of 62 trillion spam emails were sent in 2008

• Globally, annual spam energy use totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh), or 33 terawatt hours (TWh) That’s equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes in the United States, with the same Green House Gas (GHG) emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using 8.8 billion liters of petrol
• Spam filtering saves 135 TWh of electricity per year. That’s like taking 13 million cars off the road
• If every inbox were protected by a state-of-the-art spam filter, organizations and individuals could reduce today’s spam energy by approximately 75 percent or 25 TWh per year. That’s equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road
• The average GHG emission associated with a single spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2, and when multiplied by the annual volume of spam, that’s equivalent to driving around the Earth 1.6 million times

• A year’s email at a typical medium-size business uses 50,000 KWh; more than one fifth of that annual use can be associated with spam
• Filtering spam is beneficial, but fighting spam at the source is even better. When McColo, a major source of online spam, was taken offline in late 2008, the energy saved in the ensuing lull — before spammers rebuilt their sending capacity — equated to taking 2.2 million cars off the road
• Much of the energy consumption associated with spam (80 percent) comes from end-users deleting spam and searching for legitimate email (false positives)
• Spam filtering accounts for just 16 percent of spam related energy use

Reviewing our SPAM index for Q1 2010, and taking into account that SYNAQ’s Pinpoint SecureMail anti-spam service has a negligible false positive rate of 0,003%, we can see that our contribution to the reduction of GHG emissions while globally small is still significant.

Based on data taken from the McAffee/ICE Report, our service is removing, on average, 0,24g (0,3g * 80%) of GHG emissions from the atmosphere for each spam blocked. This translates into:

• JAN-2010: 72.3 million spam’s blocked  = 17 tons of CO2 saved
• FEB-2010: 66.6 million spam’s blocked  = 16 tons of CO2 saved
• MAR-2010: 69,3 million spam’s blocked = 16.6 tons of CO2 saved

Grand Total for Q1 2010: 49,6 tons of CO2 emissions saved.

Now that’s what I call a software service. Cleaning your inbox and saving the planet at the same time.

This according to Yossi Hasson, CEO of the Johannesburg-based open source software as a service company, SYNAQ, who says that while hosting “in-the-cloud” is operationally cost-effective, it is important that these applications are hosted “at-the-edge” – within South Africa – to reduce downtime risk. “The costs of local hosting have come down dramatically in recent months, reducing the need to host internationally any more,” he says. Hasson points out that the Seacom outage did more than affect e-mail transmission and Internet browsing.

Most high-end e-mail security solutions, utilised by corporate South Africa, are hosted overseas. With the disruption to the cable link, some businesses were left unprotected or unable to access their e-mail.

Hasson believes the outage should be regarded as a warning to local businesses that intend to or already use the cloud for their business computing needs to look closer to home, particularly for the hosting of their enterprise applications.

“South African businesses have long had to put up with slow download and response times from the global Internet because of our international bandwidth constraints. The completion of the Seacom cable was heralded as the start of a new era in international Internet connectivity,” he says.

“Unfortunately, just as the Icelandic volcano showed with regard to air transport, the fault on the Mediterranean section of the Seacom undersea cable demonstrated that nothing in the world of communications can be taken for granted.”

Hasson emphasises that this does not mean that local businesses cannot enjoy all the benefits of cloud computing, including lower operating and capital costs as well as convenience.

“At SYNAQ, we have long held the view that the performance problems associated with international bandwidth availability could best be reduced by ensuring that required applications and services are hosted locally. This is why we recommend to all of our customers to seek cloud providers that have local ‘edge’ capability – cloud services, but hosted locally.

“We have invested a significant amount to develop infrastructure locally that is capable of hosting all our SaaS applications, effectively eliminating the performance problems associated with international bandwidth availability,” Hasson concludes.

1. The background info

Firstly, let me set the scene quick. On development of Pinpoint 2, we have a module called reports and we realised that the original implementation of this module was lacking in a few large ways. Without going into the details of what those problems were, we decided to rewrite the entire module. One of the goals of this module however was to re-use as much as possible.

Each report consists of essentially two parts. Setting the parameters of the report through a form and then displaying the report after the form had been processed and data gathered.

A decision was made to attempt to create a single form renderer for all forms as opposed to a seperate form template for each report. This was to help us maintain the reports better and make adding new reports in future easier. The same decision was made for the report rendering as well that you can see under the form, but thats not what this article focusses on so enough said about that.

2. The form renderer

In creating a single template to display pretty much any type of form we might need, meant that the actual structure of the form would need to be fully defined as an extended symfony sfForm object. In addition, the renderer needs to be as unspecific as possible when rendering form widgets. Here is what the code for the form renderer looks like:

apps/frontend/modules/reports/templates/reportFormViewSuccess.php

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  'reports/'.$form_name,
  'update'=>array('success'=>'report_render_space','failure'=>'action_space'),
  'loading'=>"Element.show('report_loading')",
  'complete'=>"Element.hide('report_loading'); Element.show('report_render_space');",
  'script'=>true
))?>
getWidgetSchema()->getFields() as $widget_name=>$widget_element): ?>
 
    <span id="date_picker">
    renderRow()?>
 
    renderRow()?>
    </span>
 
    renderRow()?>

As you can see from that code snippet, the action responsible for rendering the report needs to generate the $form object as well as a few other variables (such as $form_name). We also made a small concession by adding an if statement looking for specific widgets (from_date and to_date). While this might seem like breaking our rule of non-specificity in the renderer, we realised this was not a problem as every report that currently exists and into the future would have those widgets as setting dates is a necessary requirement of report generation.

3. One specific issue

Things looked good. Converting our existing reports over to this new, single form renderer version was going well and all the reports were falling into place. That was until this:

Let me take a moment to clarify what this form needs to do. The report that gets generated from the forms input takes a list of email addresses as arguments, added by typing the address into the “Recipient” field and clicking the “Add” link. The report will then pull mail statistics for each user in that list and display that to the user. However, the original form we needed to replace used AJAX style methods to add each recipient to the form via the very specific forms template, something we no longer had or wanted. We didn’t want to create specific form templates. Not only that, validation was also a little tricky. If an email address had been added to the list as such:

then form validation was supposed to pass. However, if there were no addresses in that list but an address had been typed into the input box without “Add” being clicked, validation was also supposed to pass:

Tricky, but, as we found, not undoable. Now, some will point out that we could have just altered our form renderer template to work for this one example, and in fact that idea was bandied about, but it would break that non-specificity we were trying to achieve. If we started now by adding some kind of if statement to look for this specific form object and doing something unique we would then probably add more for other forms in future and end up with a bloated, hard to maintain file and may as well have kept what we had in the first place.

4. That damned “Add” link

Because we had the form renderer just rendering each form widget in sequence as defined in a forms class for a report, we couldn’t just insert an AJAX link. The solution? Create a new custom widget! Yup, for those that didn’t know, symfony allows you to create your own widgets. Here is the code for this lovely custom widget, which is, essentially, an AJAX link:

lib/form/sfWidgetReprocessFormTextLink.class.php

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class sfWidgetReprocessFormTextLink extends sfWidgetForm
{
	public function configure($options = array(), $attributes = array ())
	{
    $this->addOption('module_action', null);
    $this->addOption('field_link',null);
    $this->addOption('target_id', null);
    $this->addOption('display_text', null);
	}
 
	public function render($name, $value = null, $attributes = array(), $errors = array())
	{
		$ajax_code = "
		  new Ajax.Updater('".$this->getOption('target_id')."',
                    '".url_for($this->getOption('module_action'))."',
		  {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true,
                    parameters: 'value='+\$F('".$this->getOption('field_link')."')});
                    return false;
		";
 
		return $this->renderContentTag(
		  'a',
		  $this->getOption('display_text'),
		  array_merge(array('onclick'=>$ajax_code, 'label'=>''), $attributes)
		);
	}
}

The first thing that needs to be done for a custom widget is define what options need to be passed to it, within the configure method. In our case, we needed to take a value from an input field (field_link), send that to an action which would then process what to do with that link (module_action), where to display the result of that processing (target_id) and what text this little link is made up of (display_text). The render method then overwrites the parent class (sfWidgetForm), and uses symfony’s renderContentTag() method to actually turn it into HTML.

So, now that we have that little “Add” link, how on earth do we make it display a refreshed list of addresses that the report needs.

5. Dynamic form widget generation

We needed to replicate the functionality of the original system whereby the list of addresses were contained within editable input boxes,. What this meant for our form object was that we had a variable number of input boxes, from none to however-many-the-user-needs, to display. How we achieve this is by, first of all, using session to store what has been added already within the action called by the “Add” link widget we created above. This action is as such:

apps/frontend/modules/reports/actions/actions.class.php

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public function executeAddRecipient(sfWebRequest $request)
    {
      if ($request->hasParameter('value'))
      {
        $recipients = $this->getUser()->getAttribute('recipients_list', array());
        $exploded = explode("@",$request->getParameter('value'));
        if (strlen($exploded[0]) > 0 && strlen($exploded[1]) > 0)
        {
 
          $recipients = array_merge(array(
              $request->getParameter('value')=>
                  $request->getParameter('value')),$recipients);
          $this->getUser()->setAttribute('recipients_list', $recipients);
        }
      }
      else
      {
        $recipients = $this->getUser()->getAttribute('recipients_list', array());
      }
      $this->title = "Mail Analysis by Recipient";
      $this->form_name = "mailAnalByRecip";
      $this->form = new MailAnalByRecipForm($recipients);
 
      $this->setTemplate('reportFormView');
    }

Really all this does is add the recipient sent to the action by the “Add” link to the session variable, does a quick and dirty little validation on the email address and then recreates the form object by passing the new array of recipients to it before re-rendering the form. What does the form object do with that array of recipients?

lib/form/MailAnalByRecipForm.class.php

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public function configure ()
	{
	//Create base widgets that display by default on new form with no recipients added
	$widgets = array(
                  'recipient' => new sfWidgetFormInput(),
		  'add_recipient' => new sfWidgetReprocessFormTextLink(array(
                  'module_action'=>'reports/addRecipient',
		  'field_link'=>'recipient',
		  'target_id'=>'action_space',
		  'display_text'=>'Add',
		  ), array(
		    'title'=>"Click to add the recipient in the text box to the list of
                      recipients to report on",
		    'style'=>'text-decoration:underline'
		  )),
      'period' => new sfWidgetFormSelect(
        array(
          'choices' => $this->periods
        ),
        array(
          'onchange' => 'if ($F("period") > 0) {
             $("date_picker").hide()}
          else {
            $("date_picker").show()}'
        )
      ),
      'from_date' => new myWidgetFormJQueryDate(
        array(), array()
      ),
      'to_date'   => new myWidgetFormJQueryDate(
        array(), array()
    ));

Then we first create all the non-dynamic widgets and put them into a $widgets array.

lib/form/MailAnalByRecipForm.class.php

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//If recipients have been added to the form
//create the input fields for them with remove text link
    if (count($this->extra_inputs) > 0)
    {
      foreach ($this->extra_inputs as $name=>$value)
      {
        $widgets[urlencode($name)] = new sfWidgetFormInput(
            array(),
            array("class"=>"recipient_list_input"));
        $widgets["remove_".urlencode($name)] = new sfWidgetReprocessFormTextLink(array(
          'module_action'=>'reports/removeRecipient',
          'field_link'=>urlencode($name),
          'target_id'=>'action_space',
          'display_text'=>'Remove'
        ),array(
          'title'=>'Click this to remove '.$value.
              ' from the list of recipients to report on',
          'class'=>'recipient_list_remove'
        ));
      }
    }
 
    $this->setWidgets($widgets);

It now dynamically adds an input field for every recipient that exists using the array key ($name) value to help keep things unique in the naming department, ensuring that each recipient listed has a “Remove” link which uses our custom widget class we also used for “Add” to do the reverse, and then setting the forms widgets right at the end by passing the array.

6. Validation

As I said before, validation was a little tricky but not badly so. Here’s a look at the validators that were defined for the form thus far.

First, the basic validators for the static fields:

lib/form/MailAnalByRecipForm.class.php

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//Create base validators with no validation on 'recipients' field
//of recipients already added
    $validators = array(
      'recipient'=> count($this->extra_inputs) > 0 ?
          new sfValidatorPass() :
          new sfValidatorEmail(),
      'add_recipient'=> new sfValidatorPass(),
      'period'=>new sfValidatorPass(),
      'from_date' => new myValidatorDateString(
        array(
          'date_format' => '%Y-%m-%d',
          'required'  => true,
          'with_time' => false,
          'min'       => strtotime('-1 Year'),
          'max'       => mktime(23,59,59 ),
          'date_format_error' => 'Y-m-d h:i:s',
          'date_output' => 'Y-m-d'
        ),
        array(
          'invalid'   => 'From date is invalid',
          'required'  => 'From date is required',
          'bad_format'    => '"%value%" does not match the date format (dd/mm/yyyy)',
          'min' => 'The date %value% must be after %min%'
        )
      ),
      'to_date' => new myValidatorDateString(
        array(
          'date_format' => '%Y-%m-%d',
          'required'  => true,
          'with_time' => false,
          'min'       => strtotime('-1 Year'),
          'max'       => mktime(23,59,59 ),
          'date_format_error' => 'Y-m-d h:i:s',
          'date_output' => 'Y-m-d'
    )));

And then validators for the recipient input boxes if any, before setting the whole validators array as the validation for the form:

lib/form/MailAnalByRecipForm.class.php

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//Add extra validators for the added recipients if any.
    if (count($this->extra_inputs) > 0)
    {
      foreach ($this->extra_inputs as $name=>$value)
      {
      	$validators[urlencode($name)]= new sfValidatorEmail();
      	$validators["remove_".urlencode($name)] = new sfValidatorPass();
      }
    }
   $this->setValidators($validators);

7. Custom rendering inside the form

I’m afraid we are not done yet because two more problems reared their little heads. Firstly our form renderer template uses the symfony renderRow() method:

apps/frontend/modules/reports/templates/reportFormViewSuccess.php

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//Remove labels for the added recipients input tags and the 'Add' and 'Remove' widgets
   $labels = array('add_recipient'    => ' ');
    if (count($this->extra_inputs) > 0)
    {
      foreach ($this->extra_inputs as $name=>$value)
      {
        $labels[urlencode($name)]= " ";
        $labels["remove_".urlencode($name)]= " ";
      }
    }
   $this->widgetSchema->setLabels($labels);

The other, slightly more complex issue was that we had to make each dynamically added input box and its “Remove” link sit on one line each as the image at the start shows. This was a little more interesting. Symfony does, however, provide custom formatting abilities for a form object by creating your very own form formatting class. So we went ahead and created it. Its actually very simple:

lib/form/mailAnalByRecipFormatter.class.php

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class mailAnalByRecip extends sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatter
{
	protected
    $rowFormat = "\n%error%\n
        <span class="\&quot;formRow\&quot;">\n
        <span class="\&quot;formLabel\&quot;">%label%</span>\n
        <span class="\&quot;formField\&quot;">%field%\n%help%</span></span>\n
        %hidden_fields%",
    $helpFormat = "<span class="fieldHelp">%help%</span>",
    $errorRowFormat = "<span>\n%errors%</span>\n",
    $errorListFormatInARow = "
<ul>%errors%</ul>
 
\n",
    $errorRowFormatInARow =  "
<li class="\&quot;error\&quot;">↓ %error% ↓</li>
 
\n",
    $namedErrorRowFormatInARow = "
<li class="\&quot;error\&quot;">↓ %error% ↓</li>
 
\n"
    $decoratorFormat = "%content%";
 
	protected $fields_to_format = array();
 
	public function __construct(sfWidgetFormSchema $widgetSchema, $fields_to_format)
	{
		$this->fields_to_format = $fields_to_format;
		parent::__construct($widgetSchema);
	}
 
	public function formatRow($label, $field, $errors = array(), $help = '',
            $hiddenFields = null)
	{
		foreach ($this->fields_to_format as $field_name)
		{
			$field_name = urlencode($field_name);
			if (strpos($field, $field_name) !== false &amp;&amp;
                          strpos($field, 'type="text"') !== false)
			{
				$field = "
<div class="field_row">".$field;
			}
			else if (strpos($field, $field_name) !== false &amp;&amp;
                            strpos($field, '
 
';
			}
		}
 
		$row = parent::formatRow($label, $field, $errors, $help, $hiddenFields);
 
		return $row;
	}
}</div>

The protected variables at the start of that class define what the individual lines of every widget will look like; the error message, the actual input tag, the label, etc. The formatRow method overwrites the parents (sfWidgetFormSchemaFormatter) formatRow method and only applies our custom formatting to the specific rows we want and the default formatting to everything else.

Then in our form class we need to add:

lib/form/MailAnalByRecipForm.class.php

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//Set custom form formatter to allow for an opening span
//to be added in front of an added recipient and closed after the
   //ajax custom widget Remove link
   $decorator = new mailAnalByRecip($this->widgetSchema, $this->extra_inputs);
   $this->widgetSchema->addFormFormatter('custom', $decorator);
   $this->widgetSchema->setFormFormatterName('custom');

Whew. There. All done.

8. Reasoning and thank you’s

Why go through all this hassle just to generate the exact same forms we had before? Why do what looks like a lot of extra work to replicate a feature we already had? The answer is simple. Extendability and maintainability.

If we, in future, want to add a new report to the application, we can do it a lot quicker. In fact, some reports re-use the same form class used in other reports already. We have a custom widget that we can call on again should we need it without trying to rebuild it from scratch or create it in the template itself. If we need to alter the rendering of all forms all at once we go to our form renderer template; just one file as opposed to X amount of individual template files for every single report. If we want to alter the way just one form is displayed, we can edit the form class for that one report and we know it won’t affect any other. This is the holy grail of Object Orientated Programming; encapsulation and seperation of concerns.

Now, I could have gone and abstracted things further, I know that. But at some point you need to decide where to stop. The advantage that symfony as a whole gives us that refactoring is easy, so if we really need to do that later we can.

One thing I absolutely must mention is that all of this would not have been possible without the advice from the symfony community. By asking my questions through the symfony users mailing list I was able to get everything you have just read done. Specifically, I need to thank Sid Bachtiar for his advice and help getting to understand the intricacies of the symfony Forms framework which, to be honest, I didn’t know much about until starting the re-write of the reports module.

I hope this article is of help to others looking to use more advanced features of the symfony forms framework. Feel free to add a question you may have in the comments and I’ll pop my replies in as quick as I can.

A similar situation happened here at SYNAQ when embarking on our journey to launch the new synaq.com website.

In hindsight, we should have seen it coming. We should have known what would happen, but still, we embarked on a painful path that only cost us more time and money.

You see, we’re a small company trying to do some extraordinary things, meaning that our time is most precious – too precious (so we thought) to build our new website. We went out to the market to find the experts who provided us with some compelling presentations, customer references and accolades as to why they could get the job done better then anyone else and why their CMS (content management system) would be the best path for us moving forward.

When launching our new site we soon realized the error in our ways. The site was driven by a proprietary CMS system that was riddled with bugs and plagued with security vulnerabilities. Immediately we were at the mercy of our supplier to fix any errors and make any of the changes that we required moving forward and these changes would only be made in accordance to their time lines and their charges.

To rectify the problem we pulled one of our senior programmers off his existing projects to port our new website which we had just paid for, onto Wordpress (www.wordpress.org), the open source content management system. In just over 4 days we had our new site up and running on Wordpress and WOW what a difference it has made.

Using Wordpress we were able to immediately launch the official SYNAQ.com blog (something that would have cost extra on our previous platform), integrate best practices for SEO optimization, install a number of nifty new plugins, integrate with our internal CRM system, eliminate all the security holes and vulnerabilities present in the previous system and most importantly, control our destiny in terms of our websites future direction.

This seemingly simple example of building a new website is a reminder to me as to why open source software provides such a compelling case to businesses of all sizes. Wordpress provided us with the ability to make use of a world class CMS system, backed by thousands of developers developing a range of plugins, ensuring the security of the platform and constantly innovating on its potential – all of this at zero cost and in record time.

Our new (and we hope improved) version of the Pinpoint SecureMail interface has been out now to our customers for just over a year. It is a total departure from the interface that was provided to SYNAQ customers in the past, with a totally reworked code base, additional features and a more modern approach.

But what went into the development of this new software and what guided our decision making as we built the application? This article will, hopefully, put into a better perspective our design principles and the process we used to build Pinpoint SecureMail 2.0.

Size matters

Pinpoint Secure Mail 2.0

SYNAQ is an open-source, managed Linux Services company, with a huge depth of talent and expertise in implementing and maintaining our customer’s system-critical Linux architecture. SYNAQ was not, however, a web development company when I first joined nearly three years ago. The development team at SYNAQ has never numbered more than 3 full-time developers. And we like it that way!

With a limitation on the number of developers actively working on a project, this does cause some constraints on how we can develop. In fact, development companies such as 37Signals, constantly preach that small agile teams of developers are the best way to develop software, and we have found that to be true ourselves. While it might seem counter-intuitive to think of the “limitation” of only having three developers as a good thing, there are some very large benefits gained by not being a monolithic, bureaucratic software development house and that is … agility.

Small, quick working teams can switch tack and start working on something new or alter something entirely a lot quicker than larger development teams can. In addition, a small team causes us to think very carefully about what we develop. We cannot, and don’t want to, build something with such a large set of features that may, in all likelihood, never get used by our customers.

With great agility comes great responsibility

Yes, we are agile. No, we cannot incorporate every feature under the sun. Nor do we want to. Speaking to people who have used competing products, and even looking at competing products ourselves, we realised that most are just too packed with features that most administrators don’t want to use.

When we held our user-group meeting just before starting development on Pinpoint 2, one aspect came out clearly. People don’t want to use the interface if they don’t have to. They don’t want to sit in endless configuration screens setting things up, adding users, and administrating mail release. People have real work to do, and having to fight your way through an interface just to provide a service that you kind of want to forget about and is not core to your business means you are less productive in what actually makes your company tick. Your email security service should just do its job.

There was our first prerogative. As little configuration as possible, and the ability for a company’s IT administrator to get in, do what he needs to do (reporting, mail release, etc) and get back to his real work as fast as possible.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

So we had our constraints and targets:

• Small team of developers that can add and alter new features as fast as possible.

• Developing an app that reduces the amount of time people spend using it.

• Making the resulting application as easily maintainable as possible so our small team of developers can focus on improving rather than fixing.

The base of all this was to first decide if we were going to re-code and try to improve the existing interface we had at the time, use a different application and alter that to meet our needs or start from scratch?

For a few months, we did actually make enhancements to the existing interface that we were using, based on an open source application called Mailwatch. We needed to add certain features that our customers were really crying out for, so in order to provide that the fastest way possible was just to alter what we already had.

During this alteration period we realised, however, that the base Mailwatch was built on did not provide everything we needed to build what we really wanted. So the decision was made to start from scratch. We did make one concession. Instead of trying to build all the background stuff every web application needs, we started by using a PHP MVC framework called symfony. It essentially allowed us to get started with a common set of tools and a best-practices architecture in application design that did all the non business logic work for us so we could focus on building our product. It takes care of security, user login, caching mechanisms and all that “boring” dev work for us with minimal interaction from the developer.

We started building features from day one!

Our other very large decision was to use AJAX, or Web 2.0 as it has become collectively known. The ability to make only certain parts of a web page communicate with the server and databases allows an application to have a more desktop-application feel to it. In addition, it also reduces bandwidth, meaning only what is actually changing is being sent over your Internet connection, and not the entire page the user is viewing, which for us was a great way to make an application more responsive, and allow the user to spend even less time in the interface. Why reload something where 80% of the content is the same as it was before and only that small 20% actually changed?

Getting rid of preconceptions

This was also a big goal for us. We had been working for so long with a previous application (Mailwatch) and it did certain things in certain ways. We decided right up front that that application would not be a primer for what we were making. Instead we tried to take the mindset of the average user and determine what features and functions they used the most. This resulted in us creating an application where a feature that was once buried deep in some arcane form drop down list structure that every user used on a daily basis and converting it into a main menu item that is in your face and easy to get to.

We removed the need for report filters to be created, report being run, back to filter page, editing filters, re-running report …. into a system where the filters are visible at the same time the report is, being able to edit the report filters on the fly and re-running the report without long loading times between. We even went ahead and created totally different reports to what we had provided customers before that provided better information that was more valuable and not replicating certain reports that were in essence, redundant.

Us as developers did not want a slicker version of the previous interface that was just a carbon copy. We felt the need to start from scratch and meet demands instead of locking ourselves into a singular train of thought.

Putting it all together

A small agile team, that can focus on features that matter and actually have a use, with a great base framework that made development simpler and maintenance easier and not being burdened with preconceptions, was what made Pinpoint 2 what it is today. An application that is under constant development, with improvements happening constantly and customers that find it faster and easier to use.

It hasn’t been easy, and everyday we are challenged to make it do some very interesting and unique things, but one thing that everyone can expect is for Pinpoint never to be lying still or dormant, constantly being enhanced and improved, and that excites me!

01 December 2009

SYNAQ, the Johannesburg-based Linux and open source managed services and software services company, has made a significant impact on the local IT scene since its establishment five years ago, by two (very) young entrepreneurs, Yossi Hasson and David Jacobson.

With the failure rate of start-up businesses in South Africa exceptionally high – the Department of Trade and Industry says statistics indicate that between 70% and 90% of all n

ew businesses will not be around

after three years – SYNAQ’s five-year milestone is quite an achievement.

And when one considers that American research shows that the survival rate of IT start-ups is generally far lower than their counterparts in other industry sectors*, SYNAQ’s achievement is even more remarkable.

So, we asked SYNAQ’s founders 10 questions:

1. What motivated you to start SYNAQ?

   We have both always been fascinated with computers and technology. We were friends at school and even started a couple of businesses together back then, but we lost touch over the years. Then we met up again. David had been working for a number of IT companies, including one in the UK; while Yossi had dreams of being an entrepreneur. Then we met up again and chatting over a cup of coffee – and the conversation turned to open source and Linux. We discovered we were both passionate about it, and that we believed that it would never gain the respect – and market share – it deserved in the business sector without professional, reliable services and support.That’s when we decided there was a definite gap in the market for a professional, reliable Linux company – and we should be the ones to fill that gap. Our next step was to obtain financial backing – which we did; choose a name for our new company; and launch our new business. Five years later, here we are.

2. What type of business did you set about creating?

   Our first business plan stated that we were going to be a professional services company for businesses looking for Linux-based solutions. We were going to offer world-class services and support. We were not going to be just another IT company. We wanted to be brilliant at delivering service.

3. Is SYNAQ today what you envisaged it would be five years ago?

   It took us a few years to recognise that being “a Linux company” was far too broad a focus for a small business. We couldn’t be all-things-Linux to all businesses using Linux – not if we were to achieve our stated objective of providing world-class, consistent service. So we’ve refocused our business. We’ve distilled the best from what we’ve learned over the years in terms of our strengths and our customers’ requirements – which has led to us producing our own product sets. So we’re moving ahead as a very different business in many respects from what we were five years ago.However, there is one very important element that has not, and will never, change. In addition to providing our customers with innovative products, we will continue to provide them with world-class services and support.

4. A high percentage of start-ups fail. Why do you think SYNAQ has succeeded when so many others haven’t?

   We’ve succeeded because of our focus on customers and delivering services and solutions that exceed their expectations. Our customer base has grown largely through word of mouth recommendations from satisfied customers.
   What has also played a role in our success is that unlike many other start-ups, which are founded by like-minded people, we are so different. David is technically minded; Yossi’s passion is business. We complement each other.

   We were also extremely fortunate in obtaining backing from shareholders who believed in what we were doing and who have supported us every step of the way.Then we quickly learned that it is more important to hire people who are as passionate about our business as we are and who fit our culture, rather than to appoint people who come with the right set of skills but the wrong (for us) attitude. Skills can be learned; but you cannot teach anyone to care and believe in the things you do. The result is that we have been able to build up a really strong, SYNAQ-driven team.

   Finally, all this would count for nothing if we were not giving our customers what they need and want – products and services that really do add value to their businesses.

5. If you could, is there anything you would have done differently in building your business?

   In hindsight, we should probably have become more focused sooner than we did.
   However, had we done that, we would probably not have gained the broad experience on which we have been able to develop our innovative product sets. We also would not have attracted and built relationships with the same spread of customers.
   So looking back, there probably isn’t much we should have done differently.

6. What has been your greatest challenge in the past five years?

   People – finding the right caliber of people with the right culture fit. When you are a tiny business, the impact of one ‘wrong’ appointment can be enormous. As you grow and become more structured, there’s a stronger sense of the company’s DNA and it’s easier to know what the culture fit is – although it remains as challenging as ever to find people with SYNAQ potential.

7. Describe an event/moment when you thought to yourself” a) “We’re not going to make it” and b) “Everything is going to be OK”.

   We were young and probably a little naive when we started out. There was never any doubt in our minds that we were going to make it. Of course there were times when we panicked – but fortunately, we never both did so at the same time. This probably helped to prevent a case of jitters escalating into a fully-fledged catastrophe. The fact that our shareholders have always been available with support and advice also helped immensely. However, we have also never been complacent.

8. Now that you can no longer be considered a start-up, does it get any easier?

   No. As we’ve grown, so our responsibilities have increased. It used to be just us and a couple of people who were at risk from our decisions. Now there’s so many more, so the pressure to succeed and grow is far greater, and the potential consequences of the decisions we take are therefore larger than before.
   Certainly, some of the challenges we faced in the early days are now far easier to handle, largely because we have processes in place and far more structure. However, new and different challenges keep emerging – which is good because through challenges, comes growth.

9. What do you see as your greatest challenge going forward?

   Remaining innovative and avoiding the trap of becoming mired in bureaucracy while still being able to deliver our services consistently and reliably. At the same time, we have to ensure that we don’t get carried away with innovation and differentiate between hype and real trends in our industry. We have to achieve growth, but it has to be sustainable growth.

10. Look into your crystal ball and describe SYNAQ in 2014.

    We see a very similar, entrepreneurial company, with a few more employees, a larger client base and a host of innovative products that are making a real difference to our customers and the international Linux/open source community.

13 October 2009

Small and medium enterprises can now tap the benefits of advanced network communications and collaboration technologies easily, affordably, reliably and securely following the launch of SYNAQ Business Suite (SBS).

Managed Linux services and open source solutions company, SYNAQ, designed and developed SBS specifically for businesses with up to 50 workstations or users, giving them access to enterprise-class technology and capabilities at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems

Adi Meyers, director of Managed Services at SYNAQ, says SBS gives a small business all the essential network-related services they need, including e-mail collaboration, firewall for network security, Web proxy, file server and directory server in a single, easy-to-use offering.

In addition, its powerful collaboration applications allow businesses to share information quickly and easily between employees, customers and suppliers regardless of their location, providing organisations with a keen competitive edge.

“The problem for SMEs is that these applications are not only relatively expensive, implementing, managing and securing them is often beyond the technical capability of a company with limited technical resources.

“SYNAQ Business Suite is designed to give SMEs all the advantages of this advanced technology, and a whole lot more, without any of the headaches. We designed SBS with simplicity in mind, providing our customers with even basic technical knowledge with the tools that they need to be able to gain visibility into their network and perform some of the required daily administration. When something more complex is needed, we will do it for them,” she says.

SBS’s full featured messaging and collaboration; file and print sharing; firewall and remote access capabilities also incorporates SYNAQ’s powerful Pinpoint SecureMail e-mail security solution. This gives SMEs advanced e-mail security functionality with protection from unwanted and malicious e-mail-borne threats, ensuring greater robustness and reliability of the organisation’s e-mail infrastructure.

An open source solution, SBS can be used with Windows, Apple and Unix/Linux clients, and can work within or replace traditional Windows network servers. This means that licensing fees are further reduced.

In addition, because it’s delivered as a SYNAQ Managed Service, which includes proactive monitoring, routine preventative maintenance and 24×7 support, maximised uptime and peace of mind are always part of the deal.

“With SBS, users can work and stay connected with the office from anywhere in the world as a VPN server application provides secure access from outside the office. They can also access their mail from any cellphone or smart device with a Web browser, without having to download additional software; and mobile push technology allows for personal information to be pushed to users’ BlackBerry or ActiveSync phones,  Meyers explains.

“The rich collaboration functionality of SBS delivers everything one would want from a full-featured messaging solution, including e-mail, group calendars, contacts, instant messaging, documents and tasks.

All this is delivered securely and easily. Regardless of whether users are accessing the system via a PC, laptop, cellphone or BlackBerry, they use the same sign-on to access the business’s network, file and Internet resources.

SBS also helps SMEs to prevent data loss as company information is stored in a central location that is backed up daily to an external location.

Full-caching proxy saves bandwidth, as does the ability to control users’ access to the Web based on URLs, file types and content matching. In addition, businesses receive detailed Web usage reports that provide insight into network utilisation and activity.

Finally, failover support allows the server to switch to a secondary Internet connection in case of a line outage, maximising uptime.

18 August 2009

SYNAQ, the managed Linux services and open source solutions company, has launched a locally-hosted, enhanced version of its home-grown Pinpoint SecureMail SaaS (software as a service) solution.

Pinpoint SecureMail 2.0, which acts as a first line of defence between the public Internet and a company’s e-mail servers with its sophisticated anti-virus, anti-spam, content control and anti-phishing capabilities, now incorporates an array of new features specifically requested by users of the powerful software.

Sam Gelbart, director: Software Services at SYNAQ, says the company consulted extensively with Pinpoint users and potential resellers to ensure the development of a product that would actually meet business needs.

One of the most pressing items on users’ wish lists was for faster download and response times – a feat that cannot be achieved with applications that are hosted offshore, given South Africa’s international bandwidth constraints. At present, most high-end e-mail security solutions utilised by corporate South Africa are hosted overseas.

“SYNAQ could have waited to see what impact the new Seacom cable would have on local Internet performance. However, by hosting Pinpoint SecureMail 2.0 locally, we have effectively eliminated the performance problems associated with international bandwidth availability immediately and into the future,” he explains.

“This, combined with the advanced Web 2.0 and AJAX technologies we have incorporated into the software, has resulted in a security application that is incredibly fast, always up-to-date and extremely quick and easy to use.”

According to Gelbart, several clear trends emerged during user discussions, one of which was the difficulties businesses face in reducing the time impact of mail management both operationally and legally.

“IT staff have less time in which they have to do more – they need to do more, report more and control more. Their request was to be empowered to do what they need to do as quickly and easily as possible, while ensuring they comply with all legal and regulatory requirements. Pinpoint SecureMail 2.0 meets these requirements,” he adds.

Highlights of the enhanced software include an innovative new interface that is faster and easier to use; improved reporting capabilities with a faster reporting interface; role-based user management and access capabilities; easier mail administration; and full audit trails for all actions.

“Spammers constantly develop aggressive new tactics to defeat traditional e-mail filtering solutions. They regularly add new weapons to their arsenal to extract information from users, disable networks by flooding them, and paralysing corporate mail servers. On top on that, there is also a vast amount of e-mail-borne viruses to contend with.

“With Pinpoint SecureMail 2.0 delivered as an always up-to-date, hassle-free service that changes as quickly as spammers do, businesses are assured of a robust, fast and secure defence against all e-mail-borne threats,” Gelbart concludes.

12 August 2009

Cloud computing holds tremendous advantages for businesses in terms of lower operating and capital costs as well as convenience; but, there are several important considerations to bear in mind before committing to the cloud.

That’s the view of Yossi Hasson, CEO of managed Linux services and open source solutions company SYNAQ, who says one of the main areas of concern is that of control.

“With both managed services and software services, the organisation releases some areas of control of its IT systems and data to a vendor. In order to avoid lock-in to that vendor and ensure your ability to move your data to another vendor, should the need arise, as well as being able to do so without incurring penalties, it’s important to know that the vendor is either using open standards or open source software.

“Alternatively, the vendor should be part of or subscribe to organisations that are working towards bringing open standards into cloud computing,” he adds.

One of these is the recently formed Open Cloud Manifesto, an organisation that’s trying to bring an open standard to cloud computing so as to enable businesses to integrate and change data without being tied to a managed services or software as a service (SaaS) vendor.

According to Hasson, the establishment of cloud computing standards is still in its infancy, but the drivers are no different to those behind the impetus towards an open standard platform. As an open source company, SYNAQ supports the principles of the Open Cloud Manifesto.

As for the practicalities of cloud computing, Hasson believes businesses should adopt a “fit for purpose” approach that takes cognisance of the potential drawbacks of cloud computing.

“There’s no question that cloud computing today is ideally suited to standard SaaS-type applications such as CRM, e-mail or anti-spam solutions. However, with South Africa’s current bandwidth limitations, businesses should be wary of going the cloud route for everything.

“Indeed, for applications that require more integration and interoperability with other systems, the managed services approach could be a far better option right now,” he adds.

Another factor to bear in mind is the size of the organisation and the impact this will have on the cost of cloud computing.

Among the benefits of SaaS is a potential reduction in costs resulting from reduced requirements for hardware and licences. However, for larger organisations, having most applications, or even high-use applications, on the cloud could drive up bandwidth requirements – and bandwidth costs – thereby eliminating any savings that would otherwise be achieved.

“Cloud computing – particularly with respect to SaaS and managed services – is likely to become mainstream in the not too distant future. There are distinct benefits to be attained right now for organisations that are willing to take this step now provided they partner with the right vendors and use the cloud for the right types of solutions,” Hasson concludes.

21 July 2009

In today’s economic climate, the benefits of opting for IT managed services – lower total cost of ownership (TCO), predictable monthly expenses and access to scarce skilled resources – has become increasingly compelling.

At the same time, Yossi Hasson, CEO of managed Linux services and open source solutions company, SYNAQ, warns that the margin for error when choosing a managed services provider (MSP) has narrowed considerably.
“Businesses simply cannot afford to choose the wrong MSP, one that doesn’t deliver on the myriad benefits outsourced managed services can and should provide,” he says.

An MSP, by definition, provides delivery and management of network-based services, applications, and equipment to enterprises. The MSP is supposed to fulfil the role of the IT team if the organisation doesn’t have one, or to free up the IT team to focus on solutions that deliver competitive advantage to the business by taking care of essential but routine systems, such as the e-mail server or the firewall.

The effective MSP is one that can provide a proactive, cost-effective remote management service that delivers peace of mind for a fixed monthly investment.

In order to choose an MSP that will meet your expectations regarding outsourced managed services, Hasson suggests businesses ask the following questions:

1. Expert staff. In addition to hiring qualified, certified people, does the MSP constantly update their relevant technical certifications and customer services training to ensure that they remain abreast of all developments?

2. Proactive monitoring. Does the MSP utilise enterprise class monitoring systems that enables it to address possible problems before they occur or become a crisis?

3. Preventative maintenance: Does the MSP conduct routine checks by certified staff in order to validate the health of your infrastructure and raise alerts to potential future problems? Does this include ensuring the latest security patches and critical updates are installed on each system managed?

4. Configuration backups to remote location. Are server configurations are always available for disaster recovery? Are daily backups of critical files held in a secure off-site location?

5. Guaranteed response times. How good are the MSP’s standard response times? Do they beat the industry standard and are issues acknowledged in good time?

6. Prioritisation. Are support requests prioritised by criticality to ensure that critical issues receive immediate attention and affected services are restored as soon as possible?

7. Support and response. Is a dedicated team of highly trained support desk personnel on standby at all times to give you assistance as and when required?

8. System security checks. Does the MSP have systems in place that will ensure all potential security vulnerabilities are detected and remedied before they can be exploited?

9. Detailed monthly reports. Are monthly reports provided and will they provide visibility and extra insight into your infrastructure allowing you to see trends over time?

10. Predictable expenditure: You don’t want any hidden surprises. Will your fixed monthly investment provide you with uncapped support at an agreed level and type of service?

15 July 2009

Spam messages flooding South African networks reached record highs in May, before falling back by more than 13% in June to account for just more than 91% of all e-mail traffic.

That’s according to the inaugural quarterly SYNAQ Spam Index, which tracks spam, virus and clean e-mail traffic volumes in South Africa as monitored by the managed Linux services and open source solutions company.

Spam Capture Rate: April 09 - 93.80%, May 09 - 93.51%, June 09 - 91.49% % Spam Volume Increase on Base: April 09 - BASE, May 09 - +12.88%, June 09 - -13.85%

The index, which covers the second quarter of 2009 (April – June), reveals a sharp 12% rise to a record 95 million spam messages in May, up from 84.2 million the previous month. But in June, the number of spam e-mails dropped back to just over 71 million.

Sam Gelbart, director: Software Services at SYNAQ, attributes the decline to the US Federal Trade Commission’s shut-down of the rogue Pricewert ISP early in the month. This dealt a major blow to the notorious Cutwail botnet, which was said to be responsible for over a third of global spam traffic in the month prior to the shutdown.

However, Gelbart believes the respite from the shutdown will be short-lived, with spam volumes likely to rise again.

“There’s an ongoing war of attrition with spam purveyors. As one botnet gets shut down, another starts up,” Gelbart explains.

Meanwhile, despite the decline in spam volumes in June, the number of malicious virus carrying e-mails continued to increase steadily throughout the quarter.

“Even though the volume of e-mail-borne viruses is statistically low in comparison to spam, there is always the threat of the next zero-day outbreak. It’s therefore essential to always remain vigilant,” he concludes.

25 June 2009

Throughout most of the 1990s, open source software was generally dismissed as unsuitable for general business computing. This has changed, and there are now many business applications that run on Linux.

That’s according to Yossi Hasson, CEO of managed Linux services and open source solutions company SYNAQ, who attributes the growth in acceptance of open source software to several factors, ranging from flexibility and security to lower cost of ownership.
“When a business wants to use a specific application to differentiate itself and gain a competitive edge, open source is the way to go. Because the business has access to the source code of the software, as well as less restrictive licence terms, customisation is easier and less expensive than is the case with proprietary software,” he explains.

In addition, open source software generally costs less to acquire than its proprietary counterpart. However, the savings don’t stop there.

“SYNAQ’s experience is that upgrade/maintenance costs are also typically far less. Add to this the fact that it is usually possible to run open source software more efficiently on older hardware. This translates into smaller hardware costs and potentially, removing the need for new hardware,” he adds.

Indeed, a recent report by Forrester Research stated that the average TCO savings with open source were around 50%, and in some cases up to 60%.

Hasson acknowledges that these cost savings would not be worth much if open source was inherently less stable and secure than proprietary software. The reality, however, is that there is quantitative data that confirms the greater reliability of open source programs over proprietary programs; and performance tests show that on equivalent hardware, open source often beats the competition.

Finally, he says, there’s the issue of security. Questions are often raised about the security of open source software because of the ready availability of its source code.

“The facts, however, prove the opposite. The very openness of the source code actually increases its security. This helps to explain why Windows sites are defaced disproportionately more often than can be attributed to its larger market share and why 80% of all spam is sent by infected Windows PCs.

“It’s therefore not surprising that more insurance companies are starting to charge clients more for hacker insurance if they use proprietary software rather than open source for their Internet operations.

“With lower acquisition costs and lower total cost of ownership combined with greater flexibility, stability and security, the question is no longer whether businesses should opt for open source software, but when to make the change,” Hasson concludes.

24 June 2009

Offering you the best in open source messaging and collaboration allowing your enterprise to email, share calendars and collaborate, all while reducing TCO.

Find out more about SYNAQ Messaging Suite and start collaborating today

15 May 2009

Prompt action by MTN and its e-mail security provider SYNAQ has minimised the impact of a chain hoax e-mail on the telecommunications operator’s brand.

The hoax e-mail, which promises recipients a free mobile phone as part of an MTN “brand promotion” if they forward the mail to eight to 20 people and MTN, has been circulating on the Internet for some time. Initially, it spread quickly, resulting in MTN being bombarded by e-mails on a daily basis from hopeful consumers.

When the hoax e-mail first started circulating, MTN took immediate action, placing print and radio advertisements warning the public about the hoax and distancing itself from any such “promotion”.

While the number of response e-mails received by MTN has declined, the hoax message continues to circulate.

“Fortunately, we have been able to prevent the vast majority of these e-mails from reaching and overloading MTN’s e-mail servers,” says SYNAQ CEO Yossi Hasson.

“However, the problem facing MTN goes beyond merely blocking these e-mails. The potential damage to MTN’s brand from disgruntled consumers who expected to receive the ‘promised’ free cellphone is considerable.”

Rather than merely blocking and destroying the e-mails, SYNAQ ensures that the sender of every hoax-response e-mail receives an automated reply that explains the hoax and apologises, on MTN’s behalf, for any inconvenience caused.

According to Hasson, this is technically extremely difficult to do, as every sender is different. However, SYNAQ has the ability to decide what action to take on every e-mail, based on keywords. In the case of keywords that relate to the hoax, the automated reply is sent.

“At the height of the hoax, we were sending out over 30 000 responses every day, without impacting in any way on MTN’s e-mail network. We continue to deal promptly with the responses to the hoax as they are received,” Hasson concludes.

05 May 2009

Businesses that opt for open source solution equivalents of proprietary software applications can reduce the total budget required for its implementation and operation by 50% to 60% over three years.

That’s according to Yossi Hasson, CEO of managed Linux services and open source solutions provider, SYNAQ, who says that with the slowdown in the economy, businesses need to investigate viable alternatives in order to meet their IT needs in the most cost-effective way possible.

“For many businesses, going the open source route could spell the difference between implementing a project that boosts business efficiencies, or not. Indeed, when there is little to differentiate the functionality of an open source solution to its proprietary equivalent, the cost savings that come with open source are extremely compelling,” he says.

According to Hasson, it isn’t only the saving on licensing requirements that makes the difference, although these are considerable. Savings are also achieved on the investment requirement for the hardware on which the application has to run.

“In many instances, the open source solution is less ‘hardware hungry’ than its proprietary equivalent, which means businesses can leverage off their existing infrastructure without compromising on the application’s functionality,” he says.

However, Hasson continues, the benefits of open source solutions to a business go beyond cost savings.

“The enormous strength of open source is its flexibility. An enterprise usually wants to use IT or a specific application to differentiate itself. An off-the-shelf package might only meet 70% to 80% of what is required and the package might have to be customised. That could be expensive.

With open source, customisation is easier and less expensive as the user has access to the source code.

“There is no doubt that as budgets come under increasing strain, the open source will start to look increasingly attractive to businesses of all sizes,” he concludes.

29 April 2009

When managed Linux services and open source solutions company SYNAQ claims it takes customer service seriously, it’s not lip-service: callers to the Johannesburg-based company’s helpdesk could well find that the person handling their query is the CEO Yossi Hasson.

Hasson works as a helpdesk agent for two half-days every month – and every new employee hired by the company also has to put in time on the helpdesk.
“Our helpdesk is the frontline of our service delivery. We train our agents well and we believe they do a great job. However, if we’re to deliver truly world-class service, we need first-hand experience the problems our customers want resolved as well as the challenges faced by our agents in meeting customer needs,” he explains.

According to Hasson, his first day on the helpdesk was “an interesting experience”, which afforded him new insight into the world of the helpdesk agent.

“It also gave me greater insight into SYNAQ and the way our organisation and its offerings is perceived by customers,” he adds.

“However, my working on the helpdesk is not a PR exercise. We are already starting to incorporate some of the lessons learned by dealing with customer concerns and issues into our daily operations.”

As for new employees having to spend time on the helpdesk, Hasson says it is proving useful in quickly initiating them into the workings and culture of SYNAQ.

“It helps them to understand just how seriously service and service delivery is taken at SYNAQ,” Hasson concludes.

17 April 2009

Cloud computing is set to have a major impact on network security in 2009, according to Yossi Hasson, CEO of managed Linux services and open source solutions provider, SYNAQ.

“Because security threats change from day to day, dealing with them demands a holistic understanding of every aspect of the environment that is to be protected. This must be supported by continuous updating and re-evaluation of the security measures to ensure vulnerabilities are identified and rectified before an attack occurs.

“It’s a full-time job that requires 24/7 support and maintenance. Few organisations have the resources and know-how to deal with threats on an ongoing basis,” Hasson says.

That’s where cloud computing comes to the fore. In a cloud computing scenario, real-time, scalable resources are provided as a service over the Internet, to users who need not have knowledge of, expertise in or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them.

However, the benefits of securing the network over the cloud go further.

Hasson points out that a high proportion of the attacks on corporate networks are launched via the e-mail system, usually in the form of spam or unwanted e-mail.

“The cost to businesses of unwanted e-mail – of both the ‘harmless’ and malicious variety – can be enormous in terms of network performance degradation and wasted bandwidth. In the cloud scenario, the threat is removed before it even reaches the organisation’s network,” he explains.

A recent analysis of a major South African-based corporate’s e-mails over a three-week period conducted by SYNAQ revealed just how costly spam can be.

During the study period, SYNAQ processed some 260GB of mail – or around 53 million e-mails – that was destined for the corporate’s network.

Only 822 000 (1.5%) were “legitimate” e-mails.

Of the remainder, 850 000 (1.6%) carried malicious viruses and 51.4 million (96.9%) were spam.

It was calculated that the amount of additional bandwidth that the corporate needed to accommodate the spam so that it didn’t impact negatively on network performance would cost in the region of R30 000 per month.

“Of course, a concerted spam attack could bring the entire network down either through the introduction of a malicious virus, or simply by overloading the system to the extent that it collapses,” he adds.

The fact that the cloud effectively shields visibility of the corporate’s infrastructure from the attacker is also extremely important. In conventional perimeter security scenario, the anti-virus or anti-spam applications are located at the edge of the corporate’s own mail infrastructure. Attackers can therefore monitor the peripheral for exploitable vulnerabilities, which often result from configuration problems.

“By going the cloud route, attackers have visibility only of the service provider’s infrastructure – and because security is the provider’s core business, protective mechanisms are likely to be far more current and sophisticated,” Hasson says and points out that in a multi-branch, dispersed network environment, even the smallest, remotest office receives the same high level of protection.

Finally, security via the cloud comes at a predictable cost to the organisation. There’s no need to suddenly scale up infrastructure to deal with an anticipated threat or sustained attack.

“If left unchecked, the cost of spam would increase exponentially. There’s no sign of a slowdown in the distribution of unsolicited bulk e-mails, while spammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in bypassing anti-spam filters. Organisations can try and fight this on their own, or they can harness the benefits advances in cloud computing allow,” he concludes.

30 March 2009

A locally developed e-mail security solution is being used to monitor over 10 million e-mails destined for corporate South Africa every day. Of these, around 94% are spam or viruses, and only 5% are legitimate.

The solution, Pinpoint SecureMail, was developed by managed Linux services and open source solutions provider, SYNAQ, on an open source platform.

According to SYNAQ technical director David Jacobson, corporate networks are constantly under threat from virus propagators and spammers who relentlessly develop aggressive new tactics to defeat traditional e-mail filtering solutions.

They regularly add new weapons to their arsenal to extract information from users, flood company mail servers, and cripple corporate IT infrastructures by camouflaging their vicious threats within innocuous-looking e-mails.

“We recognised that in order to counter the aggressive tactics of virus propagators and spammers, we would have to develop an e-mail security solution that could change as quickly as they do. By leveraging the flexibility of open source software and technologies, we have produced a security solution that is always up-to-date,” Jacobson says.

Pinpoint SecureMail incorporates a range of protection services (anti-virus, anti-spam, content control and anti-phishing) and acts as a first line of defence between the public Internet and a company’s e-mail servers.
It scans e-mail using any combination of up to 14 different virus scanners that automatically update themselves every hour with the latest malware signatures.

It also identifies over 95% of spam using multiple techniques, including highly advanced heuristics and optical character recognition (OCR) for protection against the latest picture-embedded methodology used by spammers.

Pinpoint SecureMail is readily customisable to suit every company’s needs. This could range from incorporating employee specific rules within company-wide filtering policies to unique notification procedures.

The solution comes standard with a fully functional, easy-to-use Web interface that provides detailed management reports and statistics, allows release of blocked e-mails, and offers a vast number of other functions.

“It requires no additional software, hardware or technical skills providing customers with a central, reliable, always up-to-date e-mail security solution that’s easy to implement and even easier to manage,” Jacobson concludes.

26 March 2009

Vulnerabilities around open source software and cloud computing are some of the issues that will be discussed at the ITWeb Security Summit 2009, to be held at Vodaworld in Midrand, from 26 to 28 May.

Yossi Hasson, MD of SYNAQ, will debate the issues around security and open source software, and whether open source software is more vulnerable to security risks than proprietary software.

Hasson says contrary to public belief that open source is unsafe, open source is no more vulnerable than proprietary software. “A lot of the viruses that are out there are not targeting typical open source software, but rather proprietary software. We are also seeing more anti-virus engines being developed that run on open source platforms.

“The trend that we are seeing with open source software is that open source has faster turnaround times in fixing bugs and that more open source users are starting to really scrutinise the software they purchase.”

According to Hasson, the uptake and awareness of open source software is rapidly increasing, and there are more malware threats targeting proprietary software, making open source a safer choice.

Open source is ready

“In these economic times, more companies are looking at the options and benefits that open source provides versus proprietary software. It’s not a question of whether open source is ready for the market. It is ready, and now businesses are seriously exploring and looking at how it makes sense for them.”

Hasson says an increasing number of software developers are turning to open source as a foundation to develop cloud computing and software-as-a-service applications. “The licensing restrictions are by far less onerous, there’s more flexibility, and when they do build cloud computing platforms, it gives them an added advantage.

“There will be a lot more awareness and a lot more open source applications developing and coming into the mainstream in years to come. However, I don’t think it will be the end of proprietary software. There will always be a place for both. What it will do is increase competition, and at the end of the day, it will be the customer that will benefit from having more choice.”

Another advantage to open source software, Hasson points out, is the turnaround time to resolve security problems is much faster than proprietary software.
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16 March 2009

I’ve been involved in the IT industry since 1990 and SYNAQ is one of the few companies I’ve worked that actually delivers on its promises – not once or twice, but consistently.

16 March 2009

The greatest differentiator for a courier company that delivers tens of thousands of parcels daily is its IT systems.

So says Lance Soller, IT manager at RAM, South Africa’s fastest growing courier organisation which currently has 30 branches around the country all connected to its IT network.”Our IT systems are absolutely critical to our operations. Even a short system failure would virtually bring us to a standstill,” he says.

For the past four years RAM has partnered with SYNAQ, a national provider of Managed Linux Services and Open Source solutions, to ensure its IT systems perform at peak levels at all time.

SYNAQ constantly monitors RAM’s network and more than 100 servers for indications of impending trouble and system overload.

In addition, SYNAQ ensures the RAM helpdesk system – which it implemented and supports – also functions at peak efficiency.

“We’ve been most impressed with the solutions provided by SYNAQ in terms of their affordability and efficacy.  However, it’s their service ethic that really blows us away,” Soller says.  

“I’ve been involved in the IT industry since 1990 and SYNAQ is one of the few companies I’ve worked that actually delivers on its promises – not once or twice, but consistently.”

03 February 2009

Breadbin Interactive, a local open source software company, is looking to use its Freedom Toaster platform to promote and expand open source software into the rest of Africa.

The company plans to expand into Africa to make information feely available, particularly in the enterprise and education space.

The aim, says the company, is to make up-to-date relevant information free to the public to download from computer platforms entitled Freedom Toasters.

Brett Simpson, co-founder of the Freedom Toaster, says: “The name Freedom Toaster is derived from the fact that open source software and open content is free and that Linux users refer to burning CDs as ‘toasting’; hence The Freedom Toaster.

“We hope to fulfil our first international order into Africa and close development of our smaller, counter-top unit. Our core market and area for greatest social impact is education. So we will be targeting a selection of tertiary educational institutions with which to collaborate.”
Breadbin has already sold Freedom Toasters to Unisa, the Western Cape provincial government, MTN Science Centre and Seda.

The Freedom Toaster is a platform that comes in the form of a touch-screen kiosk, similar to an ATM, allowing users to burn digital information and content onto CD/DVD or USB. This includes free open source software, company information, templates, tenders, legal documents, electronic textbooks, training manuals, photographs, music and movies.

In addition, Breadbin is building open source platforms that transfer information via Bluetooth technology to the cellphone.

The Freedom Toaster concept was developed by Simpson and Jason Hudson, within the Shuttleworth Foundation, five years ago.

Simpson adds: “The concept proved so popular in so far as it was being embraced locally and internationally (we have helped people in Canada, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany, Kenya and Namibia build their own Freedom Toasters). After three years within the Shuttleworth Foundation, all stakeholders – including Mark Shuttleworth – decided the best way to make this philanthropic project self-sustainable would be to commercialise it.”

This consequently led to the formation of Breadbin Interactive in 2006, and a commercially viable model was developed to make the units available to companies, educational institutions and government departments.

According to Simpson, Breadbin Interactive is working with Seda, the entrepreneurial arm of the government, to distribute information to assist entrepreneurs start their own businesses. It includes business plans, industry information, as well as case studies.

Breadbin Interactive has partnered with Business Connexion, which supports Breadbin’s maintenance contracts for its clients.

Gaining popularity

Breadbin Interactive has found a higher frequency of people migrating over to open source operating systems, such as Shuttleworth’s Ubuntu.

Simpson believes this is because open source operating systems are more cost-effective and flexible and have anti-virus software built in. He says open source operating systems are usually not the targets of viruses in the first place.

Yossi Hasson, MD of SYNAQ, says according to Gartner, by 2012 more than 90% of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms.Hasson claims open source improves local IT skills, cuts costs, has a lower total cost of ownership and can be customised.He points out: “We are seeing more software being replaced with the alternative of open source software. FNB switched 12 000 desktops from Microsoft Windows to Linux. IBM and HP are putting through funding programmes into open source.”In an economic downturn, open source software can only grow. Companies are evaluating their spend on IT and are turning to alternatives such as open source.”

18 November 2008

Just how much damage is unwanted e-mail – of both the harmless and malicious variety – doing to local corporate networks?

A recent analysis of a major South African-based corporate’s e-mails over a three-week period by Johannesburg-based SYNAQ, a company focused on delivering managed services in the mail security and network monitoring arenas, turned up some horrifying statistics.

During the study period, SYNAQ processed some 260GB of mail – or around 53 million e-mails – that was destined for the corporate’s network.

Only 822 000 (1.5%) were legitimate e-mails.

Of the remainder, 850 000 (1.6%) carried malicious viruses and 51.4 million (96.9%) were harmless, albeit annoying, spam.

However, SYNAQ’s technical director David Jacobson points out that harmless spam is more than annoying. It slows the network and consumes expensive bandwidth.

“We estimate that the amount of additional bandwidth that the corporate would require to accommodate the spam so that it doesn’t impact negatively on the network would cost around R25 000 per month. That can hardly be considered harmless,” he says.

“If left unchecked, the cost of spam would increase exponentially. There’s no sign of a slowdown in the distribution of unsolicited bulk e-mails while spammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in bypassing anti-spam filters.”

According to Jacobson, spam used to be fairly easy to filter. It usually came from fixed IP addresses which could be countered by using a blacklist; the “from” address was not usually forged and so could be filtered; and spam contained keywords – like “penis” or “Viagra” – that could be blacklisted

However, he says, the simplistic filtering of “from” addresses and content is now useless and has been for the past few years.

In addition spammers use a number of tricks designed to fool spam filtering programs such as misspelling commonly flagged words. So “Viagra”, for example, is written as “v1@gra”, or “penis” as “pe.nis”. Spammers also use invisible ink camouflage techniques.

But as spammers’ tricks become more sophisticated, and because spam changes its form so often, the only feasible solution against this plague is to ensure anti-spam defences are constantly updated.

“At the same time, you have to ensure that your e-mail security protection doesn’t inhibit legitimate e-mail correspondence,” Jacobson warns.

For example, greylisting – a relatively new technique that has shown some promise – often causes delays on the delivery of initial e-mails. Similarly, content blockers that unilaterally block all mails containing suspect words such as Viagra may not take account of the fact that in some instances, mails containing the a word like Viagra may be perfectly legitimate for members of the medical or pharmaceutical professions.

“What’s required therefore is a dynamic e-mail protection solution that is able to deal with changing threats on a daily basis while simultaneously managing the availability and performance of e-mail services.

“Because few businesses have the in-house skills – or the time – to continuously monitor and maintain their anti-spam defences, they are increasingly turning to companies that provide managed e-mail security solutions to continue the war on their behalf,” he concludes.

17 November 2008
By Yossi Hasson, Managing Director, SYNAQ

Yes, it is effective. The stigma that it’s a platform for geeks is undeserved. SYNAQ is a committed open source advocate – we are a 20-person company and we run almost everything on open source. However, we use a proprietary solution for our accounting requirements.

The workplace doesn’t have to be an either/or environment. There is place for both open source and proprietary – it’s really about the right tools for the job.In a simple desktop environment, for example in a call centre in which users just need a simple Web interface, basic word processing and a spreadsheet, an open source package, like Ubuntu, running Open Office would be perfect. These users don’t need the bells and whistles of Microsoft Office.

At the other end of the scale, for an SME that is growing and has constantly changing needs – it may need to implement CRM or workflow management and be able to build this up over time or adapt it to enable changes in the business strategy – open source is absolutely the way to go. Open source allows for rapid change, customisation and greater flexibility.SYNAQ, however, is the first to acknowledge that open source may not be for everyone or for every situation. But it does give users something that they’ve never had before – choice.

Why bother with open source at all?

For some open source proponents, it’s a philosophical thing – a belief that software and its code should be free (albeit in a philosophical rather than financial sense) and unencumbered by licensing restrictions.Probably the most compelling reason to opt for open source is its inherent flexibility.However, if flexibility isn’t an issue and if a particular application doesn’t add any real extra value – all banks have debit order systems; all businesses have accounting systems – then proprietary software might, or might not, be better. In these situations, the choice between open source and proprietary comes down to issues like features (fit-for-purpose), price and the availability of ongoing support.Flexibility becomes an issue when an enterprise wants to use IT or a specific application to differentiate itself. An off-the-shelf package might only meet 70% to 80% of what is required. The package might have to be customised and that could be expensive, or impossible, regardless of how many skilled resources the organisation has. Many large enterprises struggle to adapt to change quickly, largely because their legacy proprietary applications don’t give them the flexibility they need. With open source, customisation is easier and less expensive as the user has access to the source code.

So if I need to change my business quickly to adapt to developments in the market or to maintain a competitive edge, open source is the way to go.

Is open source really cheaper than proprietary software?

It’s unfortunate that open source has been positioned as the cheaper alternative purely on the basis that it does not carry the licensing costs associated with proprietary software.The reality is that the cost of open source depends on the context in which it is used. SYNAQ’s experience is that the total cost to the enterprise of an open source solution and a comparable proprietary solution is probably fairly similar when everything is taken into account. On average open source solutions should be cheaper than their proprietary alternatives. However, the main benefit does not come from a cost-saving but rather the increased flexibility/ability to adapt and the prevention of user lock-in.Open source could undoubtedly be less expensive for SMEs that have in-house open source skills with the ability to implement and maintain the open source platform and applications itself. This is because there is usually – but not always – no licence fee and the solution could well require less hardware to run effectively. But if the company has to outsource support and development, the costs will probably be similar or possibly slightly less, depending on whether the software comes with a service cost.

Is Linux becoming mainstream?

In South Africa, businesses are starting to put Linux on their radar but it is not mainstream yet. Businesses are still hesitant because of the perceived risks associated with open source. These risks have generally been blown out of proportion by proponents of proprietary software through fear, uncertainty, despair campaigns.In terms of the growth of the Internet and the Web2.0 community, Linux is not only mainstream, it is close to being the only stream. Even Facebook confirmed that it is preparing to further open its platform so that third-party developers will be able to use its source code to create applications that will run in other environments.Facebook has had to do this because of the speed with which it has to scale and change. As the world becomes increasingly collaborative, so open source will increasingly become the platform of choice because of its flexibility and scalability.

Popular open source myths*

Only proprietary software is properly tested and supported.Good open source projects backed by a proper open source community are also fully tested and supported. The underlying philosophy of open source is that it should be open and available to the masses. As such, it is probably better tested than proprietary software before and after release because the community using it, testing it and enhancing it is so large. Anything missing, any bug, will soon be identified and fixed.* Open source solutions are not stable.The best way to address this myth is to point out an open source application, Apache, which runs about 70% of all Internet servers around the world. Along with products like Squid and Sendmail, open source virtually runs the Internet. The Internet is amazingly stable. And Google has opted to go the open source route for its new Chrome browser.* The shortage of open source skills makes it more expensiveThere is a general shortage of IT skills across all platforms – and it’s a worldwide phenomenon.In South Africa, because open source remains a niche market, skills are not as readily available as for proprietary platforms. However, while there may be more individuals with MS skills, are they all good skills or are many of them merely average?There is quality support available for open source available through companies like SYNAQ. There are also a lot more open source learnerships available and the number of people being trained is growing.

20 October 2008

Whither the modern outsourcing provider? On the one hand, it has to provide some kind of business value for its client. On the other, it also struggles to find the skills that force companies to outsource in the first place. And because technology is so intertwined with modern business, quite often customers don’t want to own a problem, but also can’t bear to lose control. It’s a unique set of pressures, as ITWeb heard during a roundtable discussion held in Johannesburg recently.

According to Lance Fanaroff, joint-MD of the Integr8 Group, the skills shortage is just as common for outsourcers as it is for other businesses, but it does work both ways. “The biggest challenge for everyone is the skills shortage, but that is both a pro and a con,” he says. “Companies want to outsource because of it, but it’s then hard for us to find skills.”

Another challenge facing outsourcers is the convergence of telecoms and IT. Although convergence is an old word, from an outsourced partner perspective the skill set to align those strategies can be hard to find.

Frank Mullen, COO of the telecommunications division at ITEC, says his customers are looking for one point of contact. “In the past, companies had a telecoms solution in-house, a data solution in-house and a software development solution in-house. Because of instant messaging, VOIP and broadband, I as an outsource provider can offer a much higher quality of service to my partners, but I also have to align solutions with those partners and be making decisions for them. It’s not their duty to understand technology. When you go [see them] customers ask: can you do my data, my telecoms, my networks, my hosting and my applications? So the pressure on outsourcers is to get those skills on board.”

David Jacobson, technical director at SYNAQ, agrees the skills shortage is a major issue, particularly when it comes to specialised skills. “I personally interview about five people a week. We need good IT people and good Linux people. The problem you find is that hard-core Linux guys aren’t very good with customers. They look funny, have long hair, eat pizza and don’t like talking to customers – which can be a serious problem.”

17 September 2008

In today’s competitive economy, the concept of proactive network and systems management has become something of a cliché. However, with enterprise networks supporting an intricate web of proprietary applications and solutions, translating the concept into a reliable, robust reality can be a complex undertaking.

So says Yossi Hasson, MD of SYNAQ, a Johannesburg-based provider of managed Linux services, who points out that the time it takes to become aware of any network problem is often critical to the success of a business.

“Identification of network problems, therefore, can’t be left to chance. That’s why proactive management, which enables the rapid identification of problem areas, is so important,” he explains.

However, Hasson continues, the network management tools that are put in place need to be able to do more than identify problems so an engineer can fix them. That alone won’t prevent faults from reoccurring.

What’s really required is an ability to identify the cause of a fault so the underlying problem can be addressed. Without that ability, the battle to increase network uptime can never be won.

According to Hasson, every enterprise ideally needs a single tool that can watch over every part of the network, identify potential problem areas and alert network managers to looming problems before they happen.

“While there are numerous excellent network management tools available, most have a major flaw: they were developed to monitor and manage a ‘typical’ network or one aspect of a ‘typical’ network. However, there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ network running typical applications,” he says.

“Few, if any, management tools have plug-ins available for every piece of proprietary software or customised application on the network. Rather, plug-ins have to be developed. And every time a new application is introduced, or an existing application is upgraded, so a new or upgraded plug-in has to be developed too.”

For that reason, SYNAQ has chosen to leverage the customisable power of open source for its network monitoring solution.Based on the best-of-breed GroundWork Monitor software – the most widely deployed commercial open source-based IT management and network monitoring solution in the world – the scalable monitoring solution is flexible enough to meet customers’ unique requirements while offering a holistic overview of the status of their entire network.”And with a single monitoring server licensing model, it takes network management to the next level quickly and affordably,” he concludes.

09 September 2008

In a move aimed at ensuring the upgrade roadmap of its flagship product dovetails with the challenges facing businesses today, Johannesburg-based IT company, SYNAQ, is partnering with users to help spec the next version of PinPoint SecureMail.

Sam Gelbart, product development director at SYNAQ, says participants in a recent PinPoint SecureMail User Group forum highlighted a wish list of features they would like to see incorporated into future versions of the software. PinPoint is an e-mail security solution that leverages the flexibility of open source software and technologies to offer a security solution that is always up-to-date.

“We invited PinPoint users to provide us with feedback on their experiences of the product, problems and issues they may have and what they would like to see incorporated as features in the future. The idea was to ensure we develop a product that meets actual business needs rather than a product with features we think might be nice to have – and we were delighted with the response,” he adds.

According to Gelbart, several clear trends emerged during user discussions, one of which was the difficulties businesses face in meeting compliance and governance requirements in the face of growing demands on executive time.

“Executives have less time in which they have to do more – they need to do more, report more and control more. Their request was to be empowered to do what they need to do as quickly and easily as possible, while ensuring they comply with all legal and regulatory requirements,” he says.

SYNAQ developers are now working on an alpha version of PinPoint 2.0 that will incorporate several of the suggestions and requests raised during the User Group forum. This is expected to be released for testing within the next few months.

14 August 2008

The key to IT security is secure software – software that is written with not only features, but also security, in mind, says David Jacobson, technical director at Linux services company SYNAQ. However, says Jacobson, software is seldom developed with an eye on back-end security requirements. Developers are usually under pressure to deliver on required features within tight deadlines which leave little time to check for vulnerabilities each step of the way. The result is that most software is inherently vulnerable.

“It is unfortunate that many people – business executives as well as so-called security experts – believe that the implementation of one or two security products can address security issues. There cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to security as each environment is different, with its own set of vulnerabilities. And some security products themselves contain flaws which increase a network’s vulnerability rather than reduce it,” he says.

“Indeed, if businesses are serious about security, they need to understand that the only way to truly check that they are secure is to view the code. That’s one of the reasons I believe open source software is the better option for companies where security is of the utmost concern. It’s not that open source is more secure, but rather the fact that you can view the code, see any vulnerabilities yourself and even fix if necessary if you have the skills to do so,” says Jacobson.

Jacobson recommends that before implementing any application, including a security product, users should check the “pedigree” of the product.

This would include determining whether any vulnerabilities or flaws had been detected in the product; and how well or quickly the vendor had responded to these reports. Most of this information is to be found on websites like www.securityfocus.com, a vendor-neutral site that provides objective, timely and comprehensive security information to all members of the global IT security community.

“The SecurityFocus Vulnerability Database, for example, delivers an invaluable service by providing security professionals with the most up-to-date information on vulnerabilities for all platforms and services. Another SecurityFocus service is BugTraq, a high volume, full disclosure mailing list for the detailed discussion and announcement of computer security vulnerabilities. BugTraq is, without doubt, the cornerstone of the Internet-wide security community,” he adds.

05 August 2008

Open source is a viable option for SMEs but not because it is necessarily “cheaper” than proprietary solutions (although this is often the case). Rather, open source – because of its inherent qualities for flexibility and scalability – is ideal for SMEs that have ambitions to lose the “S” appellation.

So says Yossi Hasson, MD of SYNAQ, a SME focused on providing open source solutions to SMEs (and large enterprises) who believes it’s time open source lost its undeserved reputation as a platform for geeks.

“It’s extremely effective in the workplace,” he maintains and points out that Synaq, apart from being an open source advocate, is a 15-person company that runs almost everything on open source. The only exception is the company’s accounting system.

“There is place for both open source and proprietary in any SME environment – it’s really about the right tools for the job,” he adds.

For example, in a desktop environment in which users just need a simple Web interface, basic word processing and a spreadsheet, an open source package like Ubuntu running Open Office would be perfect. These users don’t need the bells and whistles of a Microsoft Office.

At the other end of the scale, for a SME that is growing and has constantly changing needs – it may need to implement CRM or workflow management and be able to build this up over time or adapt it to enable changes in the business strategy – then open source is absolutely the way to go. Open source allows for rapid change, customisation and greater flexibility.

Hasson says there are many open source “big ticket” tech solutions – CRM, BI, mail tools and the like – which can be and are readily tailored to SME requirements.

“SME versions of heavyweight proprietary solutions generally offer fewer features than their big brother counterparts which is why they are more affordable for the SME. But what if the particular whistle that has been left out is one the SME needs? And what if there are still features in the ‘lite’ version that the SME can easily do without?

“With an open source option, SMEs can have a solution that not only fits their precise needs, it will be easy to scale as the business grows,” he explains.

He acknowledges that some SMEs may be reluctant to go the open source route because of concerns that a shortage of open source skills would make it more expensive to maintain than a proprietary solution.

However, he points out that there is a general shortage of IT skills across all platforms – and it’s a worldwide phenomenon.

“It’s important to bear in mind that while there may be more individuals with MS skills, they are not all good skills. Many of them may be merely average.

“Quality support is available for open source through companies like SYNAQ. There are also a lot more open source learnerships available and the number of people being trained is growing,” he concludes.

02 July 2008

The ongoing war of attrition between spammers and those opposed to these purveyors of unsolicited bulk e-mails shows no sign of abating or any indication of an ultimate victor.

Indeed, David Jacobson, technical director at Johannesburg-based SYNAQ, a company focused on delivering managed Linux services in the mail security and network monitoring arenas, believes it’s a war that can never be won – at least not while SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) remains the de facto standard for e-mail transmissions across the Internet.

“SMTP’s strength comes primarily from its simplicity. Unfortunately, it was developed at a time when the very concept of Internet viruses, spammers, hackers and online fraud would have been regarded as science fiction at best or a harmless prank by high-spirited computer geeks at worst,” he says.

“Today, however, spamming is not only an unpleasant annoyance, it’s potentially extremely dangerous.”

According to Jacobson, spam used to be fairly easy to filter. It usually came from fixed IP addresses which could be countered by using a blacklist; the ‘from’ address was not usually forged and so could be filtered; and spam contained keywords – like ‘penis’ or ‘Viagra’ – that could be blacklisted.

However, he says, the simplistic filtering of ‘from’ addresses and content is now useless and has been for the past few years.

The reason is that spammers use a number of tricks designed to fool spam-filtering programs. These include misspelling commonly flagged words – so ‘Viagra’, for example, is written as ‘v1@gra’, or ‘penis’ as ‘pe.nis’; and using invisible ink camouflage techniques. Ironically, it’s tricks like these that in fact make it easier for anti-spam readers to identify suspect mails.

So spammers’ tricks have become more sophisticated – and anti-spammers are having to counter them one-by-one. Examples of the anti-spam battles currently being waged include:

Battle one:

* Spammers realise that spam filters spot their text tricks so they send short, plain text e-mails with a URL which direct recipients to a Web site;
* Anti-spammer response: blacklist the URL
* Spammer response: use a redirector (to counter the URL blacklist)
* Anti-spammer response: follow the redirector and blacklist that
* Spammer response: use Geocities with complex page that reloads using encoded Javascript

Battle two:

* Spammers realise that spam filters read their mail so they send an image instead of text
* Anti-spammer response: checksum the images
* Spammer response: make random modification of image and number of images
* Anti-spammer response: perform OCR (optical character recognition) on images
* Spammer response: add random noise to images
* Anti-spammer response – use fuzzy OCR

And so these and other battles in the war of attrition continue.

“Because spam changes its form so often, the only feasible solution against this plague is to ensure your anti-spam defences are constantly updated. At the same time, you have to ensure your anti-spam protection doesn’t inhibit legitimate e-mail correspondence,” Jacobson says.

For example, greylisting – a relatively new technique that has shown some promise – often causes delays on the delivery of initial e-mails. Similarly, content blockers that unilaterally block all mails containing suspect words such as Viagra may not take account of the fact that in many instances, mails containing the word Viagra may well be perfectly legitimate for members of the medical or pharmaceutical professions.

“What’s required therefore is a dynamic anti-spam solution that is able to deal with changing threats on a daily basis while simultaneously managing the availability and performance of e-mail services.

“Because few businesses have the in-house skills – or the time – to continuously monitor and maintain their anti-spam defences, they are increasingly turning to companies that provide managed e-mail security solutions to continue the war on their behalf,” he concludes.

17 November 2007

Yes, it is effective. The stigma that it’s a platform for geeks is undeserved. SYNAQ is a committed open source advocate – we are a 20-person company and we run almost everything on open source. However, we use a proprietary solution for our accounting requirements.

The workplace doesn’t have to be an either/or environment. There is place for both open source and proprietary – it’s really about the right tools for the job.

In a simple desktop environment, for example in a call centre in which users just need a simple Web interface, basic word processing and a spreadsheet, an open source package, like Ubuntu, running Open Office would be perfect. These users don’t need the bells and whistles of Microsoft Office.At the other end of the scale, for an SME that is growing and has constantly changing needs – it may need to implement CRM or workflow management and be able to build this up over time or adapt it to enable changes in the business strategy – open source is absolutely the way to go. Open source allows for rapid change, customisation and greater flexibility.SYNAQ, however, is the first to acknowledge that open source may not be for everyone or for every situation. But it does give users something that they’ve never had before – choice.

Why bother with open source at all?

For some open source proponents, it’s a philosophical thing – a belief that software and its code should be free (albeit in a philosophical rather than financial sense) and unencumbered by licensing restrictions.Probably the most compelling reason to opt for open source is its inherent flexibility.However, if flexibility isn’t an issue and if a particular application doesn’t add any real extra value – all banks have debit order systems; all businesses have accounting systems – then proprietary software might, or might not, be better. In these situations, the choice between open source and proprietary comes down to issues like features (fit-for-purpose), price and the availability of ongoing support.Flexibility becomes an issue when an enterprise wants to use IT or a specific application to differentiate itself. An off-the-shelf package might only meet 70% to 80% of what is required. The package might have to be customised and that could be expensive, or impossible, regardless of how many skilled resources the organisation has. Many large enterprises struggle to adapt to change quickly, largely because their legacy proprietary applications don’t give them the flexibility they need. With open source, customisation is easier and less expensive as the user has access to the source code.So if I need to change my business quickly to adapt to developments in the market or to maintain a competitive edge, open source is the way to go.

Is open source really cheaper than proprietary software?

It’s unfortunate that open source has been positioned as the cheaper alternative purely on the basis that it does not carry the licensing costs associated with proprietary software.The reality is that the cost of open source depends on the context in which it is used. SYNAQ’s experience is that the total cost to the enterprise of an open source solution and a comparable proprietary solution is probably fairly similar when everything is taken into account. On average open source solutions should be cheaper than their proprietary alternatives. However, the main benefit does not come from a cost-saving but rather the increased flexibility/ability to adapt and the prevention of user lock-in.Open source could undoubtedly be less expensive for SMEs that have in-house open source skills with the ability to implement and maintain the open source platform and applications itself. This is because there is usually – but not always – no licence fee and the solution could well require less hardware to run effectively. But if the company has to outsource support and development, the costs will probably be similar or possibly slightly less, depending on whether the software comes with a service cost.

Is Linux becoming mainstream?

In South Africa, businesses are starting to put Linux on their radar but it is not mainstream yet. Businesses are still hesitant because of the perceived risks associated with open source. These risks have generally been blown out of proportion by proponents of proprietary software through fear, uncertainty, despair campaigns.In terms of the growth of the Internet and the Web2.0 community, Linux is not only mainstream, it is close to being the only stream. Even Facebook confirmed that it is preparing to further open its platform so that third-party developers will be able to use its source code to create applications that will run in other environments.Facebook has had to do this because of the speed with which it has to scale and change. As the world becomes increasingly collaborative, so open source will increasingly become the platform of choice because of its flexibility and scalability.

Popular open source myths

Only proprietary software is properly tested and supported.Good open source projects backed by a proper open source community are also fully tested and supported. The underlying philosophy of open source is that it should be open and available to the masses. As such, it is probably better tested than proprietary software before and after release because the community using it, testing it and enhancing it is so large. Anything missing, any bug, will soon be identified and fixed.* Open source solutions are not stable.The best way to address this myth is to point out an open source application, Apache, which runs about 70% of all Internet servers around the world. Along with products like Squid and Sendmail, open source virtually runs the Internet. The Internet is amazingly stable. And Google has opted to go the open source route for its new Chrome browser.* The shortage of open source skills makes it more expensiveThere is a general shortage of IT skills across all platforms – and it’s a worldwide phenomenon.In South Africa, because open source remains a niche market, skills are not as readily available as for proprietary platforms. However, while there may be more individuals with MS skills, are they all good skills or are many of them merely average?There is quality support available for open source available through companies like SYNAQ. There are also a lot more open source learnerships available and the number of people being trained is growing.

01 November 2007

Tracker, Africa’s leading vehicle tracking company, continues to maintain a close eye on its customers, safe in the knowledge that its network infrastructure remains efficient, up-to-date and proactively monitored by its IT supply partner SYNAQ.

SYNAQ is a national provider of managed Linux and open source services. The company was recently contracted by Tracker to implement a system that would increase the ability to manage and control what is a substantially large and complex IT environment.

Tracker has been operational in South Africa since October 1996. It has developed a service portfolio, incorporating a comprehensive range of technology products such as Tracker Retrieve, Tracker Alert, SkyTrax and Tracker Selftest, all of which is designed to ensure the safety of drivers and efficiency of vehicles throughout South Africa.

Its national presence stretches from its headquarters through to an extensive network of Tracker base stations located across the country. The company has 467 000 vehicles under its care.

“Tracker is a company with over a thousand employees and has over 150 servers that are proactively monitored, managed and maintained to run the business,” explains Yossi Hasson, MD of SYNAQ. “With such a large environment it is often difficult to ascertain where a single fault on a network lies. This can result in hours of downtime and in the business that Tracker operates, downtime could have far-reaching, serious consequences.”

With this in mind, SYNAQ looked to implement an open source software solution that would provide the necessary level of proactive, automated troubleshooting and response capability.

“We elected to implement Nagios infrastructure monitoring and management solution. This had to be customised to fit in with Tracker’s unique heterogeneous environment made up of an array of different systems, including Linux, Microsoft, Oracle and its own custom solutions. It was imperative for Tracker that the solution enabled them to detect strings and logs – such as RF Signal alignment strengths and error messages,” adds Hasson.

The rationale behind the selection of Nagios was based on its offer of a high level holistic overview of a company’s systems and different business silos.

“Tracker base stations are made up of unique hardware and software custom-developed for Tracker. This equipment works through a radio network and integrates with its custom designed Oracle database. This architecture allows the company to monitor the relevant statistics of vehicles under its care. Our objective was to integrate our monitoring into this custom environment in order to pull critical warnings and relevant information used by the Tracker operations team,” says Hasson.

“The advantage we had with Nagios monitoring is that the solution is a modular framework that is open source and allows one to custom-develop plug-ins or checks in order to close any off-the-shelf monitoring gaps,” he adds.

SYNAQ continues to provide infrastructure management and support services to Tracker and both parties look forward to a long-term association.
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01 October 2007

SYNAQ, a local provider of Linux and open source managed services, has been contracted to manage and maintain the Linux-based ICT network infrastructure and connectivity for The Pro Shop, a national supplier of golfing product and services.

The Pro Shop is one of several divisions of MoreGolf, incorporating the Vodacom World of Golf, Vodacom Golf Villages, playmoregolfSA with vodacom, Gary Player Golf Experience powered by Telkom business and LandBank Golf4All.

To provide an idea of the coverage and service level of this entire operation, Dale Rosenberg, IT General Manager of MoreGolf, describes the businesses within the group.

The Pro Shop has five branches spread throughout the country, with a sixth store about to open in Fourways, Johannesburg.

The Vodacom World of Golf is South Africa’s first golfing theme park and is situated in Woodmead; there are Vodacom Golf Villages in Gilloolys, Randpark and Centurion, and playmoregolfSA with vodacom is South Africa’s premier rewards programme for golfers.

Each division of MoreGolf runs off a Linux-based infrastructure and connects with the head office in Woodmead through ADSL VPN. There are 10 sites that form part of this VPN and each site runs a Linux firewall.

Management at MoreGolf required the services of an established company with a proven track record within the Linux/open source arena to manage its e-mail, Internet and VPN.

Rosenberg confirms the importance of connectivity for the business and explains why the company opted to outsource this maintenance function to SYNAQ.

“When we embarked on our quest to find a partner that could maintain these competencies for us, we knew we wanted to outsource to a company that could do so without sacrificing on quality of service. Having thoroughly scouted the Linux market, we were impressed with SYNAQ’s list of customers and the way it conducted itself as a business,” he says.

“The decision to outsource this function to Synaq meant we did not have to organise the skills in-house and could therefore concentrate on ensuring that all our key business solutions/applications run as efficiently as possible.”

Synaq is a recognised and established provider of Linux and open source management solutions, operating from its base in Sandton, Gauteng.

Yossi Hasson, managing director of SYNAQ, says The Pro Shop is a premium brand in South Africa that is synonymous with retailing within the golf industry. The mandate supplied to SYNAQ was based on the proactive management, support and maintenance of the company’s entire site network and setup.

“Connectivity is essential for any sized operation, but especially for a company of this size and involving so many sites. Our job is to ensure The Pro Shop and all of MoreGolf’s businesses are able to continue to provide the level of service its customers have become accustomed to without having to worry about infrastructure,” says Hasson.

Rosenberg also points to SYNAQ’s knowledge base as a key factor in being able to leverage off the infrastructure and add value to the service delivery process.

“We are also able to draw on SYNAQ’s knowledge when it comes to open source solutions. This opens up a new range of possibilities that are both powerful and cost-effective. In all businesses these days, connectivity is crucial even if your users say it isn’t, and having a reliable solution and support structure ensures you are able to stay focused on the key areas within the business.”

13 July 2007

In 2000, Microsoft foisted a dog of an operating system onto the world. Windows Millennium Edition (Me) was unstable to the point of being unusable. Now some commentators are drawing parallels between it and Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new baby.

Windows Me was such a bad operating system that even Microsoft officials admitted to me in private at the time that the company had made a mistake in releasing what was at best “beta” code. Why did the company do it? Windows XP was still a year away and the company was clearly itching to squeeze the last drops of blood it could out of its dying, DOS-based Windows 95 and 98 franchise.

The technology press lambasted Microsoft for releasing the software, which constantly plagued users with the infamous “blue screen of death” – the screen that inevitably meant it was time to reboot. Many consumers who made the mistake of installing it – I was one of them – quickly backtracked to Windows 98. Last May, PC World, an influential US IT magazine, listed Windows Me as the fourth-worst technology product of all time. “Forget Y2K, this was the real millennium bug,” wrote PC World journalist Dan Tynan.

Read the full article at: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/613.html

12 June 2007

According to Loura DiDio, Yankee analyst and author of the 2007 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Survey, 23 percent of survey respondents intend to migrate away from Exchange Server and adopt an alternative Linux or Open Source email and messaging distribution platform in the next 12 to 18 months.

This is further evidence of a growing international trend that is starting to take root in Africa and southern Africa says Yossi Hasson, managing director at Synaq, a national provider of managed Linux and Open Source services.

“It is an exciting development that businesses cannot afford to overlook,” says Hasson. To this end Synaq will be hosting a breakfast product and information session on June 29 at the Hilton in Sandton to introduce the latest in available Linux-based solutions and assist its customer base and industry partners with advice and information.

“Our mandate is to keep our client base informed about the latest Linux and Open Source technology on offer. For example, the local industry alliance we have with Scalix, a US-based international messaging infrastructure company, offers us access to solutions that make an instant impression on clients. One such product is the Scalix Small Business Server solution that features almost the same functionality as the company’s Enterprise solution, but is targeted primarily at the small-to-medium segment of the market,” adds Hasson. Hasson says that Scalix Small Business Server provides companies with full Microsoft Exchange functionality at a fraction of the cost.

The product includes the industry’s most robust third-party MS Outlook support and Scalix Web Access, the company’s award-winning and fully featured AJAX web email client that combines the power of desktop email with the convenience of a browser.

It also includes native Novell Evolution support (enabling full-function email and calendaring on Linux desktops), unlimited POP/IMAP email access, GUI and command line administration, full group calendaring, scheduling and the optional Scalix Wireless Solution.

“We continue to receive very positive feedback from clients that have committed to a migration from traditional email platforms, Exchange and other messaging infrastructure. Clearly, there is an association between Linux-based technology and benefits such as improved operational efficiency, higher levels of infrastructure management and control, as well as lower total cost of ownership,” he adds.

The Synaq breakfast is free but seating is limited. Those people interested in attending should register as soon as possible with Gloria at gloria@synaq.com, (012) 803-5686 or click through to http://www.synaq.com/openbreakfast

14 December 2006

Synaq, an established managed Linux services provider and Open Source specialist, has upgraded its acclaimed PinPoint Securemail servers to include Optical Character Recognition (OCR) enhanced anti-spam technology. Customers are now guarded against modern picture-embedded methodology used by spammers.

Yossi Hasson, marketing and sales director at Synaq, says the company has already integrated the technology into its PinPoint Securemail solution and this offers its customers another facet of protection against the surge of spam.

Globally there has been an increase in spam targeting mail servers that are able to bypass anti-spam solutions by having a graphic or picture embedded in the mail.

“Most ant-spam solutions are designed to pick up and quarantine e-mails containing specific key words. Spammers have started incorporating aggressive new tactics to curb corporate email security solutions by embedding an image containing the actual spam within the email. Images, by default, cannot be ’scanned’ using standard filtering techniques and therefore spammers have experienced a large degree of success by incorporating this method. This is exactly why we have developed and introduced OCR within our filtering engines” says Hasson.

OCR was developed using various Open Source components. Synaq decided to also custom develop the solution to integrate seamlessly with its PinPoint e-mail solution. The result is technology that ensures that images are ‘read’ and categorized by the system.

“All spam messages are automatically given a hashcode and placed into a database. The solution will then perform a check of all mail against this database to ensure that it does not contain any of the registered hashcodes. It is an effective means of protection and spam filtering, especially given the fact that up to thirty percent of all spam messages contain an embedded image,” Hasson explains.

The company is confident of the reliability of the technology it has integrated into its solution and provided to its client as an upgraded managed service. So much so, says Hasson, that we are running a competition during the month of December 2006, whereby anyone investing in the solution on a 30-day free trial basis can win an i-Pod Nano.

“This is an extension of our managed service portfolio. Our PinPoint solution continues to gain popularity, and we are excited about this effective built-in component. There is a fifty percent increase in spam hitting global mail servers and it is necessary for businesses to keep up to date with the latest developments in IT security solutions and approaches,” adds Hasson.

For more information, contact the Synaq Team on 0860 0 SYNAQ or info@synaq.com

07 September 2006

Nandos has revamped its ICT infrastructure and restaurant connectivity after incorporating a new Linux-based solution and connectivity across its network. The well known restaurant chain outsourced the project to Synaq, a provider of managed Linux services and Open Source software.

Nandos has 250 restaurants nationwide and each restaurant is required to forward detailed information from their Point of Sale (PoS) system directly to head office on a daily basis.

The data is vitally important in assisting the company in its day-to-day operations, identify trends, engage with their market and ensure sufficient quantities of stock.

Each restaurant is equipped with a PoS system and backoffice computer . The backoffice computer communicates with the PoS and then communicates all data back to head office.

“The solution was not providing head office with accurate and reliable communications on a regular basis. This would often result in staff having to manually retrieve the missing information from each restaurant. Synaq was contacted and requested to conduct a full inspection and evaluation of the communications infrastructure with the objective of redesigning the infrastructure setup and network,” explains Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq.

“We then set up a completely new server and initiated a three-to-four week re-design, development and testing process,” Hasson continues.

This culminated in the integration of a new solution which has already resulted in 100% communication from all Nandos restaurants.

“In addition we provided Nandos with a graphical reporting interface that allows the company to view the percentage of stores that were successful, which failed and other background information” adds Hasson.

Antonio Silva, Head of IT for Nandos, said the solution more than met expectations and has proven to work in the given timeframe and within budget.

“Synaq has superb project management skills which is sorely lacking in the industry. They are in touch with business and technology, and their standards-based approach ensures that one never feels locked in as is often the case with custom development,” comments Silva.

“The company took the time to audit and understand our technology which ensured that they understood our challenges. Synaq has proven to be a valuable partner for Nandos and I am confident that we have a bright future together,” Silva concludes.

23 August 2006
The State Of Spam

Filters have gotten so effective at keeping junk e-mail away from users that there’s little public outcry against spam today. But behind the scenes, the problem is worse than ever–and it could mask a serious, real-world threat.

Read the full article on InformationWeek by clicking here.

01 August 2006

Synaq, a national provider of managed Linux services, is to market Altiris SecurityExpressions software, a scalable solution used to deploy and manage enterprise system security policies.

The solution caters for both an ‘agentless’ or agent-based approach and allows the user to automatically audit, deploy and enforce system security policies across all Windows, UNIX and Linux desktops, notebooks, and servers in a fraction of the time previously required.

SecurityExpressions helps a business to implement, administer and manage formal, defined system security policies that control items such as: network authentication, systems settings, user rights, accountability, resource access controls, operating systems and application of patches.

The key advantage of the system is that it can be customized according to a company’s specific security policy or can audit a network using industry security best practices including Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and FISMA. Its fundamental benefit is the fact that it helps ensure that a company meets its IT security policies.

Both Altiris (Nasdaq: ATRS), a pioneer of service-oriented management solutions, and Synaq believe the solution will help local companies negotiate numerous challenges within the area of information security management including: compliance with legislation, vulnerability management, investment in technology and adequate protection against internal and external threats.

John Thomas, Regional Manager, Altiris, refers to the 2005 CSI/FBI Crime Report*, specifically towards the statistic which suggests that surveyed companies lost more than 0 million in 2004 due to poor system security.

“The difficulty is that unforeseen security holes come in all different shapes and sizes-from missing patches, mis-configured systems, poor security policies, file sharing programs to outdated antivirus definitions. Even if some critical areas are well-protected but others are not, the effect is the same as if none were well protected-resources can still be vulnerable. As a result, organizations are constantly struggling to increase their system security posture and combat security threats before they rapidly proliferate across the network or undermine their compliance with industry or governmental regulations,” says Thomas.

Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq, suggests the introduction of SecurityExpressions will help reinforce a company’s efficiency in managing security and protecting their most prized asset, namely data.

“Businesses tend to understand the need to invest in technology to help secure their environment. The issue is that acquiring solutions without any knowledge and insight from a specialist is like throwing money at a challenge in the hope that this will eliminate the problem. Our partnership with Altiris will add value to the local market because this is a proven solution from an internationally-established company with extensive experience in the field. This factor, together with our experience and knowledge of local requirements, will prove to be a worthwhile and profitable venture,” says Hasson.

“Synaq has a very specific skill set in this country. Altiris relies on partners of this nature to implement and advise on key security issues. In many cases, security is viewed in the same light as purchasing insurance – one is only certain of its value when something happens,” explains Thomas, “We are very happy with Synaq’s skills and knowledge and feel that this partnership will be instrumental in taking us into the future.”

About Altiris

Altiris, Inc. is a leading provider of service-oriented management software that enables IT organisations to easily manage, secure and service heterogeneous IT assets. Flexible solutions from Altiris help IT align services to drive business objectives, deliver audit-ready security, automate tasks, and reduce the cost and complexity of management. For more information, visit www.altiris.com.

21 March 2007

Synaq, a leading Linux and open source services specialist, has extended its technology partnership with Storm Telecom, a major provider of voice and data solutions to businesses in South Africa, in an agreement which sees Storm including Synaq’s Pinpoint Securemail e-mail security solution into its data services offering.

The two companies have been working together since early 2006, where Synaq provided Storm with the Linux server component of the majority of Storm’s uncapped DSL solutions for proxy services, traffic shaping and firewalling.

Both companies view the alliance as the next logical step forward in their relationship.

Synaq has proven its technical competence, experience and capability to partner, and deliver custom-built solutions for the customer within given timeframes.

“Our customers are looking to us to provide high-speed, reliable voice and data solutions that also take management and security headaches off their hands. By bundling Synaq’s e-mail security technology with our data solutions, we can relieve stresses on client’s internal IT staff who would otherwise have to constantly deal with e-mail-born viruses, Trojans and phishing attempts, and worry about keeping scanners up to date to detect the latest attacks,” explains Clifford Giesenow, Data Business Unit Manager at Storm.

Yossi Hasson, Synaq’s Sales and Marketing Director.
Pinpoint Securemail acts as a first line of defence between the public Internet and a company’s e-mail servers, scanning e-mail using any combination of up to 14 different virus scanners that automatically update themselves with the latest malware signatures. It identifies over 95% of spam using multiple techniques, including highly advanced heuristics. Pinpoint Securemail is based on open source software modules that are thoroughly tested by organisations around the world, and is highly scalable, able to process over a million messages per day.

“This agreement for Storm to exclusively use Pinpoint Securemail in its data solutions strengthens Synaq’s position as a provider of highly regarded, enterprise-class e-mail security solutions. It gives a strong vote of confidence in Synaq’s ability to deliver on mission-critical services and solutions to the corporate market,” says Yossi Hasson, Synaq’s Sales and Marketing Director.

According to Hasson, this agreement requires a great deal of mutual confidence as both parties share the risks in making it a success.

“Synaq has made an investment in the required infrastructure, software and technical skills, while Storm is supplying the required bandwidth, sales, marketing and help-desk support for this product offering. The structure of this venture ensures that as the solution grows, both companies benefit and grow together,” he says.

01 March 2006

National managed Linux services provider and Open Source software specialist Synaq has boosted its technical capability to integrate and support the Scalix messaging platform with an investment in training from the US-based messaging infrastructure company.

Technical managers from Synaq have completed an intensive, three-day training course hosted by Florian von Kurnatowski, Director EMEA Technical Services at Scalix, focused on the Scalix solution.

The training has been organized following Synaq’s formal agreement and partnership with Scalix to extend the solution to the local market.

“The high-level training strengthens our ability to solicit maximum value from the solution for clients. It guarantees us a higher level of understanding in order to offer the necessary support and services,” explains Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq. “Synaq has invested in Scalix as an answer to the growing need to offer a comprehensive Linux-based Exchange replacement and we are encouraged by this investment in the partnership and our skills level.”

“With its award-winning SWA Webmail interface and full support for the industry-standard Outlook desktop client, Scalix is a true alternative to Microsoft’s Exchange server. The foundation is solid and cuts down on messaging costs by consolidating workgroup servers. The introduction of new infrastructure will certainly add value to local businesses and presents options to enterprises that are planning to invest or those already investing in Linux or Open Source infrastructure. Scalix offers a very robust and scaleable Enterprise Messaging platform running on Linux,” he adds.

Von Kurnatowski believes the alliance with Synaq will add value to the messaging infrastructure company’s ongoing campaign to increase its presence within emerging markets.

”The solution is well-established in various key markets throughout the world and our intention is to increase the level of awareness and adoption in developing markets. Synaq has the reach and presence to help drive this campaign forward into the South African market, which has significant potential for us, he says.

01 February 2006

National managed Linux services provider and Open Source software specialist Synaq has entered into a partnership with Scalix, a US-based international messaging infrastructure company, to provide the local market with new Linux-based server infrastructure.

The industry alliance presents Synaq with an immediate opportunity to distribute and implement a new generation messaging platform that is a full Microsoft Exchange replacement on Linux and provides companies with the capabilities to collaborate in the workplace, including, for example, the sharing of calendars, online/offline synchronization and mobile device access.

“This is done at a fraction of the cost of Exchange with more stability and security,” says Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq.

The product is targeted at a broad spectrum of organizations, with capacity to support businesses with thousands of users and those with less than one hundred.

Hasson describes the partnership as a major breakthrough for the company and the local market.

“We are very excited about this development. It offers us a significant opportunity to extend our reach into the market with a new offering that will add value,” says Hasson.

“The introduction of new infrastructure will certainly add value to local businesses and presents options to enterprises that are planning to invest or those already investing in Linux or Open Source infrastructure. The solution is scalable so it adapts easily to the changing needs of the environment and grows with the company. The foundation is solid and cuts down on messaging costs by consolidating workgroup servers,” he adds.

24 January 2006

Regent Insurance Company Ltd., a local provider of underwrite services for motor and motor-related businesses, has implemented an Intel/Linux-based solution and acquired related services from local provider SYNAQ in order to guarantee optimum performance from its communications infrastructure.

27 October 2005

Regent Insurance takes to Linux like a King penguin takes to water

Regent Insurance Company Ltd., a local provider of underwrite services for motor and motor-related businesses, has implemented an Intel/Linux-based solution and aquired related services from local provider Synaq in order to guarantee optimum performance from its communications infrastructure.

According to Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq, Regent Insurance Company decided to migrate its central database application, which runs on Oracle 8, from a Sun architecture to a Linux architecture.

“The client has experienced significant growth and the main server began to take strain when its 190 or so agents simultaneously logged into the solution. An upgrade on the server would have been costly and so Regent evaluated the solution on a Microsoft environment using Intel architecture. Although the solution increased performance, bottlenecks still occurred,” explains Hasson.

Regent then opted to evaluate the solution on Linux but had difficulty in sourcing a vendor that could successfully install Oracle 8.17 on Red Hat Linux (RHEL AS2.1). This is where Synaq was brought in to add value.

“We installed RHEL AS2.1 Linux with Oracle 8, configured the solution and moved the company’s old database across and implemented the solution. In addition we have a service level agreement with Regent and now monitor, manage and maintain the solution on their behalf,” adds Hasson.

The cost saving element was associated with not having to upgrade Sun servers and also allow Regent Insurance the ability to scale its environment and apply readily available Intel/Linux architecture to accommodate new customers.

A major challenge faced by Synaq lay in marrying an old version of Oracle (Oracle 8.17) with an older version of Red Hat Linux (RHEL AS2.1).

“We conducted some extremely low level debugging and diagnostics to come up with the solution. In the end we fulfilled the primary requirement of ensuring that Oracle 8 worked natively on Linux in conjunction with Regent Insurance’s in-house insurance software application written by Websoft Maven,” says Hasson.

Craig Grasko, IT manager at Regent Insurance, adds that Synaq provided high level Linux experience and understanding required for the installation of Oracle on the Linux server, as well as to successfully design and configure the right solution for the job.

“We have now decided to migrate the entire solution to Linux running with Oracle 10g. We will also install RHEL AS4.0 and Oracle 10g. This will definitely result in even greater performance and will provide us with greater flexibility to expand,” says Grasko.

21 October 2005

Big things expected from Open Source PBX solution

The Open Source PBX solution known as Asterisk is fast gaining the attention of investors and IT managers looking to beef up the telecommunication and digital interactive capability of their organisations. The solution, says David Jacobson, technical director at Synaq, is already making a huge impact in several parts of the world, including South Africa.

Jacobson, who heads up the technical division at local Linux managed services provider, Synaq, recently attended the third Astricon conference in Los Angeles, California, a high level forum focused on the increased adoption and general level of awareness around the Asterisk Open Source PBX solution.

This, he says, was a unique opportunity to network with recognized leaders within the development of this solution, people such as Mark Spencer who wrote the original application.

“The key aspect of attending the conference was the opportunity to familiarize oneself with the benefits that are inherent within this technology. It was clear from the discussions and presentations that Asterisk as a PBX solution is increasing in popularity and there is much more to come from this space, globally and locally,” says Jacobson.

Asterisk is based entirely on Open Source software and is designed to provide feature-rich PBX to the enterprise at a fraction of the cost of typical proprietary PABX systems.

Synaq is active in this market and has already managed a number of successful local Asterisk implementations.

“As a strategic PABX platform, Asterisk features built-in VoIP, Call Recording, MP3 on Hold, Interactive Voice Response and Direct Listing Functionality that combine to enhance the corporate communication process,” says Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq. “The fact that it is software-based means the solution can be customised to specific telephony requirements and related applications a business may have.”

“We are very excited about the prospects in unleashing the solution’s true potential locally,” adds Hasson.

19 October 2005

We have positions available for:

1) Linux Network Administrator

2) Account / Sales Manager

If you have relevant experience in the Linux arena and believe you have what it takes then please send through your CV to careers@synaq.com

22 September 2005

Local provider of identification and recovery services for the benefit of pension and provident fund trustees, Benefit Recovery Services, has taken its investment in Linux and Open Source to another level. The company has implemented Asterisk from its Open Source PABX IT partner and managed Linux services provider, Synaq.

Benefit Recovery Services (BRS)is owned by a consortium of shareholders and was established to identify and recover unclaimed monies that lie in financial service companies, find untraced beneficiaries to ensure appropriate distribution and assist pension and provident fund trustees, fund administrators & former members in implementing the requirements and principles of the Pension Funds Second Amendment Act, 2001.

The company operates two call centres, one to log and follow up on incoming calls and the other to manage external or outgoing calls. Management invested in Synaq’s customised kick-start CD called ShrinkWrap that automatically configured each terminal at the 60-seat call centre with a
custom Linux installation providing each agent with only the necessary tools and eliminating the need for human intervention.

“We were very much a Microsoft house and this proved to be prohibitive to our growth. We made a decision to modify our HTML-based call centre and leverage off browser services. Stability and ease of implementation were also key factors behind the decision,” explains Ian Lewin, Executive
Director at BRS.

According to Lewin the company’s back-end was started in SQL and has remained so in order to
effectively manage its database of approximately 7,5 million individuals.

“Our background lies in SQL and we haven’t changed in this respect. However, as far as the front-end of the business is concerned, we have moved from XP to Linux. Synaq provided a roll-out CD called ShrinkWrap that automatically configures each seat when required. We can now upscale or downscale our call centre as the need arises at minimal cost,” says Lewin.

In the natural development of the company, BRS soon realized that its incoming or registration call centre, viewed very much in the light of a ’step child’ to the company and non-core entity, was actually a very important division that could not be ignored.

“We started to scout for solutions that could handle incoming calls, monitor, transfer and voice record them. Asterisk was the one solution with the necessary features, and made the most sense from a costing and facilities perspective. We have implemented it and it runs very well. As a result the management of the incoming call centre and related resources is greatly enhanced,” says Lewin.

BRS management has realized the potential in Asterisk and its ideal placement as a VoIP switch. “It actually represents a key alternative to our problematic switchboard. It is the perfect solution for VoIP, saves costs because it has a built-in recording system and is stable, Open Source, measurable and works,” adds Lewin.

Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq, considers the investment a major boost for BRS and its position within its specialised market. “BRS management has opted for the very best-of-the-best in Linux-based solutions. This will definitely enhance business processes and we look
forward to continuing the mutually beneficial relationship going forward,” says Hasson.

Synaq is currently helping BRS with the migration of its outbound call call centre to an Asterisk solution.

15 September 2005

Thanks again for the hard and excellent work, your company is really setting the benchmark on quality and service delivery for all the other MTNNS business partners

23 August 2005

Synaq and Integr8 IT provide technological innovation at Digital Mall

Managed Linux services provider Synaq has played a key role in ensuring improved levels of benefit and a substantially higher return on the investment in ICT infrastructure for Digital Mall, the Proudly South African relationship marketing solutions and multi-channel commerce provider.

Synaq and Integr8 IT took over the management of IT networking services at Digital Mall in March 2005. Digital Mall operates a relatively complex ICT infrastructure, incorporating both Microsoft and Open Source (Linux) platforms and required proactive service levels.

“An efficient, effective ICT environment is absolutely mission-critical to the day-to-day operations of the company,” Yaron Assabi, Chief Executive Officer at Digital Mall. “Without a proactive approach to our infrastructure, it is difficult for us to provide the unprecedented service levels that our customers demand.”

A primary objective of the Linux managed services provider was to implement its e-mail security solution PinPoint in order to address the issue of spam on Digital Mall’s diverse internet connections and application services infrastructure.

“The fact that Digital Mall was receiving up to 250 000 spam mails a month was a mitigating factor behind the lines being maxed out, problematic and very slow. Implementing PinPoint immediately reduced 92% of their e-mail traffic and bandwidth going down their diginet line and this provided an improved browsing capability and utilisation of their bandwidth,” explains Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq.

“Our role was then extended to upgrade firewalls, implemented a Linux proxy server and added restriction of browsing policies in order to better control use of infrastructure,” adds Hasson.

Synaq partnered with national network infrastructure management specialist Integr8 IT. Technicians from Integr8 IT implemented a SUS server and performed an Exchange 2003 migration.

Says Bennie Strydom, project manager at Integr8 IT, “All Digital Mall’s development work is on Windows, so the Microsoft environment is crucial. The company is also plugged into Integr8 IT’s nerve centre and we currently provide them with 24 x 7 x 365 proactive support.”

“We have also implemented our advanced network monitoring solution, SEM and will also now begin to proactively monitor their entire environment. Part of the Digital Mall team has been added to the SMS notification service, the company now has the ability to generate availability reports and analyse trends and know about problems before they occur.,” adds Hasson. “Our various solutions resulted in greater bandwidth utilisation, a significant cost saving, more leverage and return on investment.”

“Jointly Synaq and Integr8 IT offer a cost effective and complimentary service. It is a huge challenge to find an IT manager with both Linux and Microsoft skills and the combination of both companies’ skills sets and experience has covered my requirements, without the cost of employing an IT manager that is familiar with both environments. We are very happy with the services we are receiving and look forward to a long term partnership with both Synaq and Integr8 IT,” says Assabi.

18 July 2005

Have you got what it takes to work in a young, dynamic, technical environment?
Are you passionate, self motivated, hard working and skilled in the Linux arena?

Synaq are looking to hire and if you think you’ve got what it takes then drop us your CV by emailing careers@synaq.com

We’re looking for highly skilled Linux Network Administrators. You need to have at least 3 years of Linux administration experience .

Good Luck!

14 July 2005

Internet threats have clearly become a lot more sophisticated and malicious. The frequency and level of attacks on corporate networks and systems around the world have forced businesses to adopt a more vigilant approach towards security, and to review the way applications are configured, be discerning in selecting software applications and emphasise security as a top priority in business.

Any operating system is prone to security vulnerabilities. Attacks originate from insecure software. Companies like to acquire extra security applications such as intrusion detection systems and firewalls and throw money at the problem, but these applications also have vulnerabilities and the real solution lies in running secure code and being strategic about configuration and assembly.

For example, if an application, such as the DNS server, is compromised, but is well configured, the attacker will only have access to modify the DNS settings and will not gain sufficient control to take over the entire server. Many commercial applications are monolithic in design and everything is interlinked, so if one service is compromised, it means the entire server is left vulnerable.

The only way to achieve the required level of trust is to be open source, an approach that the majority of commercial suppliers are not willing to take. In the case of open source, a key consideration to keep in mind is the fact that the technology has been reviewed many times over by some of the world’s best and brightest in the field of computer security.

The perception that a Linux environment and open source software statistically has more vulnerabilities in comparison with other operating systems is only half true.

Due largely to the ‘open’ nature of this environment, source code is made available for scrutiny by many parties. This means that vulnerabilities are picked up immediately and announced . And even if nothing is done by the original developers to fix the problem, it is almost guaranteed that someone, somewhere will create a patch and release it.

This is one of the key advantages of Linux environment, from a security point of view. The other is that it is flexible, modular and built from the ground up with security in mind, so the risk and consequences of a security compromise are reduced.

A significant aspect of Linux is that it is not as vulnerable to viruses.

Linux is an extremely flexible operation system and does not just set standards – standards are at the heart of its design.

It has made significant inroads within the server domain and is progressing within the desktop space, but common challenges – such as skills, short term business benefit over security requirements and general misconception – mean a long journey ahead for the local market in terms of adoption.

17 June 2005

Synaq, national provider of managed Linux services, recently transformed the call centre operation housed within Benefit Recovery Services (BRS) from a Windows-dominated environment to that of Linux.

The Johannesburg-based Linux services provider created a customised kick-start CD called ShrinkWrap that automatically configured each terminal at the 60-seat call centre with a custom Linux installation providing each agent with only the necessary tools and eliminating the need for human intervention.

Benefit Recovery Services is owned by a consortium of shareholders and was established to identify and recover unclaimed monies that lie in financial service companies, find untraced beneficiaries to ensure appropriate distribution and assist pension and provident fund trustees, fund administrators & former members in implementing the requirements and principles of the Pension Funds Second Amendment Act, 2001.

The company’s fully-equipped call centre and administration section is dependent on efficient ICT infrastructure that is cost effective to manage and maintain, with no risk of downtime.

Synaq was brought in to convert the existing infrastructure from Windows machines to Linux desktops without impacting on the daily operation of the business. The company adopted and ran a unique installation method that worked automatically and seamlessly to derive the desired results.

“We managed to migrate BRS’ call centre operation within hours by implementing ShrinkWrap, a CD manufactured and designed for this purpose. The implementation saved on licence renewals, hardware upgrades, anti-virus software and most importantly, time,” explains David Jacobson, technical director at Synaq. “The design and use of the CD is an innovative method in implementing Linux and Open Source Software. It not only makes very good technological sense, but very powerful business sense as well.”

Ian Lewin, Executive Director at BRS, said the company featured a back-end system that runs off HTML and the chief reason for the deployment of the new operating system software on user systems is to leverage off the Firefox browser facility.

“Microsoft licensing was prohibitive to our growth. We opted to go the Linux route in order to prevent any downtime when we re-wrote our Windows-based recording software to that of a Linux system. The results have been phenomenal – not a single machine has been down since installation and we have quite literally saved in the region of R2 000 per machine,” says Lewin.

Jacobson adds that the straightforward installation and short-term results of this migration project demonstrates that a Linux investment can add value within certain environments, conducive to this technology and infrastructure.

“We advocate open source technology within the framework of an ICT infrastructure as a viable alternative. As our involvement with BRS proves, there is often no impact on the business in terms of downtime and the Linux route can lead to a significant saving,” he concludes.

13 June 2005

Synaq would like to welcome our newest recruit to the technical team.

Andre Fourie has joined the Synaq team on the technical front adding to Synaq’s arsenal to ensure that we constantly deliver far and beyond our customer’s expectations.

He brings with him years of Linux experience, a whacky sense of humour and drinks black coffee with 7 sugars… (now thats wired!).

Welcome aboard Andre!

06 June 2005

The solution SYNAQ had implemented not only reduced the amount of strain on our servers, it also increased the productivity of our Call Centre, therefore ensuring a quick turnaround on client requests.

01 June 2005

During the LinuxWorld expo Synaq offered a draw to win an iPod mini. To enter, all you needed to do was drop your business card into a bowl.

We received 844 entries and pulled out one lucky winner. Robert Graham from Weather SA is the proud owner of a new iPod mini.

Robert said “I’ve never won anything before and definitely didn’t expect to win this”

Well Robert, with Synaq, anything’s possible!
Well done and enjoy!

23 May 2005

The first LinuxWorld event to be held in South Africa went off smoothly and received a very warm response from visitors says Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq, a local provider of managed Linux services and exhibitor.

LinuxWorld was billed as an additional attraction of the annual Futurex exhibition, and visitors were given the opportunity to interact with businesses operating within the open source software market.

“Judging from the number of visitors and the amount and level of questions posed to exhibitors, such as ourselves, it is clear that the local market is very interested in open source technology and the potential that it does possess,” says Hasson. “The impact of the event on the market is that companies now know that Linux isn’t just a buzz-word being covered in the media, but rather a real, viable alternative and option. What this mainly means is that the customer once again has the biggest freedom yet – freedom of choice.”

According to Hasson, ongoing endorsement of open source software by popular industry icon’s such as Mark Shuttleworth has helped to reinforce interest within the local market.

“This exhibition and the ongoing marketing efforts around this developing market instill a sense of confidence among businesses. Generally, it suggests that if they were to implement a Linux-based solution, they would have a number of companies to turn to in the event of problems or support issues,” adds Hasson.

From a Synaq point of view, LinuxWorld provided an opportunity to engage with its target market and showcase its product offering and expertise. It also strengthened the company’s credibility in the marketplace.

16 May 2005

Mailboxes worldwide are being infected with hundreds of German emails prompting the recipients to visit a website.

On viewing this website the recipients machine becomes infected with a virus that begins forwarding the email onto the recipients address book, turning that machine into a spam “zombie” station.

South African companies have been hard hit by this German invasion prompting IT technicians to frantically try and restore systems and reduce the impact of the virus. In some cases, machines have had to be formatted in order to prevent the virus from spreading further.

In response to this threat, Pinpoint Securemail was updated with multiple new spam checks (German Spam specific) therefore ensuring that customers behind Pinpoint are not affected by the German email invasion. The update required no user intervention, no change in infrastructure and no network downtime allowing Pinpoint customers to truly continue with business as usual.

06 May 2005

LinuxWorld, the global event focused on Linux and Open Source Software, will be running in conjunction with the Futurex exhibition in May. This is the first time LinuxWorld will be hosted in South Africa, and Synaq, a leading provider of Managed Linux Services, anticipates a strong reaction from the local market.

Synaq has tailored its offering to highlight what Yossi Hasson, sales and marketing director at Synaq, describes as ‘clear-cut advantages behind open source technology and more specifically Managed Linux Services, catering to the needs of operations across the board, from small-to-medium sized companies right through to large enterprises.

“There is no doubt that the popularity of Linux and open source technology is on the rise. Our key objective is not only to interact with resellers and prospective partners, but also to showcase the potential behind a range of solutions including Asterisk, an open source PABX solution with VoIP capabilities, PinPoint Securemail, a comprehensive anti-virus and overall e-mail protection service, and a host of other Managed Linux Services including network optimisation,” says Hasson. “We have the added advantage of LinuxWorld attracting our target market. We also aim to reach those who may be considering an investment in open source technology, but require more details in order to make an informed decision.”

The key message that Synaq wants to communicate to the market is that open source software in conjunction with managed Linux services is a credible alternative that is easily managed, cost effective and can enhance the networking and communication, and other critical business operations for a business.

“If one looks at the SME environment, for instance, we have on board straightforward technology that is simple and cost-effective to implement and manage. LinuxWorld provides us with an opportunity to showcase powerful solutions such as our monitoring solution SEM, among others,” adds Hasson.

The SYNAQ stand can be found at stand A8 at LinuxWorld. LinuxWorld will be running from the 17th till the 20th May 2005.

06 May 2005

The Sober.P worm has caused worldwide havok infecting hundreds and thousands of machines with the new worm variant causing machines to automatically forward the virus to people in their address book.

The virus has propogated so fast that according to some reports constituted up to 4% of all email traffic around the globe.

However, Pinpoint customers have been smiling.

Pinpoint Securemail, Synaq’s enterprise email security solution protects customers on the Internet level, utilising 3 concurrent anti-vrius engines ensuring that any new virus variant is stopped within minutes of the world becoming aware of them.
Pinpoint stops viruses before they reach your network. Eliminating the potential risk and saving customers bandwidth.

From inception of the virus Pinpoint Securemail has blocked over 15 000 emails on behalf of our customers, constituting over 8% of all email traffic and over 60% of all viruses detected.

To date, no Pinpoint customer has reported being infected by the Sober.P worm (or any other email borne virus) and are not experiencing any unusual slow down in their network speeds.

Source: Pinpoint Securemail, 06/05/2005

13 April 2005

SYNAQ is rapidly expanding… We’re looking for young, vibrant, goal orientated, passionate and motivated Linux network administrators.

Candidates must have sufficient Linux network administration experience. Iptables, Squid, Snort, Samba – these must be the things you dream about at night PHP and MySQL experience an added bonus!

If your hard working, passionate, able to work well under pressure and very technical then send your cv to: careers@synaq.com

04 March 2005

SYNAQ introduces the most flexible, customisable and advanced enterprise monitoring solution available today.
Built entirely on popular open source applications, our monitoring solution enables companies to monitor what they never thought imaginable.
With built in notifications via sms or email, ability to monitor custom proprietary files, SNMP support, detailed web-interface and more, our monitoring solution ensures that you’ll always be on top of your enterprise network.

03 March 2005

Synaq has increased the level of email virus defence that customers will receive when utilising the enterprise wide Pinpoint Securemail Email Security solution.

In an increased effort to curb the growing number of viruses attached to emails, Synaq has incorporated a 3rd layer of virus defence onto the Pinpoint Securemail solution.

Bitdefender AV, the while known and widely utilised anti-virus engine has been added to the Pinpoint Securemail suite, now giving Pinpoint customers 3 concurrent anti-virus checks on every email processed. The combined efforts of McAfee, ClamAV and Bitdefender ensures that every email Pinpoint customers receive is clean and virus free.

03 March 2005

Pinpoint Securemail utilises 3 concurrent anti-virus engines to scan all emails for known and unknown virus threats, ensuring that all emails delivered to you are not only Spam but also Virus free.

15 February 2005

Pinpoint SecureMail processes over1 000 000 emails per month ensuring the most accurate email security solution that protects your enterprise on the Internet level before reaching your network.

15 February 2005

Synaq’s flagship enterprise email security solution, Pinpoint Securemail, now processes over 1 million emails per month for our customers protecting them from all email borne threats and reducing their load and bandwidth usage by eliminating the threats on the Internet level before reaching their network.

Of the 1 million emails processed per month, on average 630 000 are Spam (63%), 40 000 are Viruses (4%) and 72 000 are blocked due to bad content (7.2%) With over 1 million emails being processed per month (and still climbing) you can be ensured that Pinpoint Securemail is one of the most accurate email security solutions available today!

11 February 2005

Spam could soon reach 95% The global junk mail plague is to get dramatically worse as spammers use victims’ PCs as anonymous proxies to send e-mail via their Internet service providers’ mail relay.

According to anti-spam organisation Spamhaus, spam could account for 95% of all e-mail sent by mid-2006. “New versions of proxy packages released by Russian spammers operating in the US now have a feature which instructs the hijacked proxy to send the spam out via the mail relay of the ISP to which the proxy is downstream,” the company says. Before this explosion in proxy-generated spam, most e-mail traffic arriving at ISPs’ mail servers came mainly from two sources: sent directly by the spammer, or sent by the spammer through a hijacked computer (proxy), Vnunet reports. But Spamhaus warns that the source of incoming spam is changing, and ISPs are seeing far more spam coming directly from the major mail relays of other ISPs.

10 February 2005

The much anticipated and sort after SYNAQ website (http://www.synaq.com) has officially been launched. The dynamic website contains all the updated info on SYNAQ, our customers, services and solutions along with the latest Linux news worldwide.

09 February 2005

70% of all email today is Spam! That is the reality of the matter and situations are only getting worse. To date, front line defense solution have repeatedly failed in protecting your enterprise from Spam, Viruses and Phishing attempts.

It is for these reasons that SYNAQ developed Pinpoint Securemail.

Built entirely on Open Source Technologies. Pinpoint Securemail is a flagship enterprise email security solution that protects your organisation on the Internet Level requiring no additional hardware, software or technical skills eliminating all email threats before it reaches your network, increasing security and reducing bandwidth consumption.

To date Pinpoint Securemail processes over 1 000 000 emails per month and protects over 13 000 mailboxes nationwide.

Take us to the test, evaluate Pinpoint with our 30 day free trial.

03 February 2005

The German national railway says it has moved all its 55 000 Lotus Notes users onto the Linux open source operating system.

PC World quotes the operating company as saying the move is expected to deliver cost savings, greater flexibility and integration benefits. The company has already shifted its vital train time-tabling system from HP Non-Stop to Linux. Next, it will move various SAP systems, including sales support, from Unix to Linux. By the end of the year, all remaining critical systems will run on Linux.

01 February 2005

Synaq would like to welcome two of its’ newest members to the team. Johann Scheepers and Christopher Graham have both joined SYNAQ as Linux Network Administrators expanding our technical team enabling SYNAQ to focus on expanding their offering and maintaining their extremely high levels of service that customers have become accustomed to. Good luck guys and welcome aboard!

25 January 2005

The volume of Spam will grow at an average rate of 54% over the next four years, and by 2008, 71% of all email in Europe will be Spam.

25 January 2005

The economic value proposition we’ve seen in initial Linux deployments sometimes represents a 40 to 50 percent reduction in total cost of ownership, and that is a value proposition that we can’t ignore.

25 January 2005

For any Linux solution we would strongly recommend SYNAQ to any company out there.

25 January 2005

SYNAQ as a company delivers large value to any enterprise reliant on their IT infrastructure for the success of their business. The saving we experienced in terms of time and money make SYNAQ’s Managed Linux Services a compelling argument for any company out there.

25 January 2005

Pinpoint SecureMail will eliminate the majority of all email threats before reaching your companies network without the need for any additional hardware, software or technical skills.

25 January 2005

SYNAQ’s enterprise monitoring enables a proactive rather then reactive approach to managing your companies IT infrastructure

25 January 2005

SYNAQ’s Managed Linux Services enables your company to benefit from the power and flexibility of Linux and Open Source Software whilst ensuring that all management and support is professionally and effectively handled ensuring overall peace of mind

14 November 2004

Five Reasons to chose Pinpoint Securemail
1) Stops all email borne threats (spam, viruses, phishing attempts)
2) Protects your enterprise on the internet level
3) No need for any additional hardware, software or technical skills
4) Simple MX change and your protected
5) Free 30 day trial

01 September 2004

A new young, dynamic and innovative company has officially opened its doors with a unique new offering, Managed Linux Services.

With over 8 years of in-depth Linux and Open Source Software experience, SYNAQ aims to provide companies with the power and flexibility that Linux has proved to bring to enterprises while ensuring that all maintanence and support is effectively and efficiently handled using our unique, customer centric, Managed Linux Services approach. SYNAQ’s new offices are located in the business hub of Johannesburg on Grayston Drive in Sandton.