Secure Cloud combines an updated version of the AppRiver platform with Zix and AppRiver applications, to make this Zix’s flagship offering going forward.

A year ago, email security vendor Zix acquired Microsoft-focused cloud cybersecurity AppRiver, and set to work upgrading and expanding the cloud platform AppRiver possessed. Today, they are unveiling the fruits of their labours with Secure Cloud. Secure Cloud, backed by Phenomenal Care 24/7/265 support, is an updating of the AppRiver platform, which becomes Zix’s new flagship offering. It also contains Zix’s own legacy applications, as well as others which broaden out the original Microsoft focus of the AppRiver platform.

“What legacy Zix did and does better than anyone else is email encryption for compliance,” said Dave Wagner, Zix’s CEO. “In the early and mid 2000s, Zix grew up around HIPAA. We made the protection of personally identifiable information easy for the sender, so they could make sure they weren’t making mistakes. Now that protection has moved into other areas – financial, commercial and personal. We encrypt that – 80% of the time with no user names, no passwords and no extra steps. It makes it very easy to meet compliance regulations while keeping business moving.”

Zix’s sweet spot is somewhat more upmarket than legacy AppRiver, although the big difference there is that AppRiver was MSP focused, while Zix used a hybrid Go-to-Market strategy, where the channel component was traditional VARs.

“31% of all U.S. financial institutions are Zix customers,” Wagner said. “It’s not the big banks, although we do have some, but the long tail of midmarket regional banks and credit unions. AppRiver, on the other hand, had built a platform for enabling MSPs who primarily service the small business market to take advantage of Microsoft technology.”

Secure Cloud can be best understood as the next generation of the AppRiver platform rearchitected for today’s demands, and which also incorporates the Zix applications within that platform.

“Secure Cloud is technology from both companies, and is the flagship going forward.” Wagner stated. “We invested $20 million since the acquisition in the legacy AppRiver platform to uplift it and make it even stronger for partners, so partners can better leverage the platform and the Microsoft productivity suite. The legacy Zix products are now applications on the Secure Cloud platform, which is the updated AppRiver platform at its core. It still has a suite of applications which are based largely on Microsoft. However, it has expanded beyond that with cloud transfer and file sharing applications and advanced threat, malware and phishing protection. So Secure Cloud now goes well beyond Microsoft to provide a robust layer of protection against security threats.”

That includes a secure file sharing application that’s resident in Canada, which Zix acquired last year with Vancouver’s DeliverySlip, which is likely better known in the Canadian channel by its original name of Cirius Messaging.

“It’s a marquee application, whose customers include the Ontario government,” Wagner indicated. “It’s a unique and powerful solution for file sharing up to 100 GB files.”

Secure Cloud is made up of three parts. Zix Secure Suite is the combined roster of applications from both Zix and AppRiver, now all part of a single suite. The second part, Zix Secure Platform, goes beyond the standard applications to allow partners and customers to extend and integrate the applications of Zix Secure Suite, or build new ones on the cloud-native architecture.

“This adds the ability of partners to build secure platforms,” Wagner said.

The third element is Zix’s Cyber Intelligence capabilities, which provide data and insights to drive innovation in the solutions.

While all the elements of Zix’s Go-to-Market strategy, including the direct sales and the VAR business are still present, the MSP channel will be the primary route to market for Secure Cloud.

“The channel is the number one focus now,” Wagner noted. “The vast majority of customers today in the SMB segment use an MSP to help them. That’s the number one motion we want to support. But as you move up in company size, if they haven’t outsourced IT, those larger customers still fit with the legacy VAR channel and direct sales motion.”

Wagner said that the impact of the coronavirus and large scale moving of people to working from home highlights customer experience needs which are part of Secure Cloud’s design.

“The big thing is making the end customer experience more secure and compliant without a lot of manual work,” he said. “It addresses those digital transformation needs of end customers  which have become so important. The end customer will have the confidence they have several layers of protection while being compliant with regulations, and buying at a lower cost. And for the partner, it’s a higher margin than just selling Microsoft.”