Mcafee, Global Micro deliver secure cloud solution

McAfee South Africa, in partnership with hosting service provider Global Micro, has launched a cloud solution to assist African customers in securing their e-mail and Web traffic. Not only will the service protect customers' communications infrastructure from malware infections, it will also deliver business continuity and archiving solutions to ensure their data is backed up securely and easily available in emergencies.

“The Consolidated Content Gateway Solutions address key customer requirements for both e-mail and Web communications,” says Craig Hockley, regional director for South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, McAfee. “Partnering with Global Micro enables McAfee to bundle these services together with day-to-day e-mail facilities offered by the software as a service (SaaS) provider, such as Hosted Microsoft Exchange.”

Web 2.0 has opened the door for sophisticated Web-borne threats designed to evade detection by traditional security measures. The McAfee SaaS services offer proactive, in-the-cloud protection that not only blocks known malware on the Web, but also unknown and hidden attacks, blended threats and spyware.

Hosted on Global Micro's Microsoft-based infrastructure, customers will have safe access to their data without having to invest in in-house server and software solutions.

McAfee has been operating SaaS solutions across the globe for the past nine years. The company has now found a local partner with which to offer its Global Threat Intelligence services to the local market. “This partnership provides us with the ability to serve African customers through a local infrastructure provider, avoiding latency issues sometimes associated when using international data centres,” adds Hockley.

“Global Micro has defined the South African managed services landscape since 1994,” says the company's founder, JJ Milner. “Our partnership with McAfee confirms our commitment to delivering secure and streamlined IT services to companies of all sizes. The McAfee brand represents secure computing to millions of end-users, which we have now brought into the South African cloud environment.”

“All businesses need to protect their e-mail from spam, inappropriate content and viruses,” says Hockley. “McAfee and Global Micro now provide a comprehensive inbound and outbound e-mail protection, business continuity and archiving solution. We are now in a position to protect our customers against malicious content, whether they require in-house or hosted solutions. In addition, with Global Micro we can support clients as they implement a hybrid architecture consisting of in-house and hosted solutions.”

“By adopting a SaaS model, customers free up their IT staff and infrastructure to focus on the strategic projects that drive their businesses, rather than installing and managing software and hardware,” notes Milner. “The new McAfee solution is ideal for businesses of all sizes and scales to meet the needs of growing business without needing to invest in additional on-premises hardware.”