Archive for the ‘Company News’ Category

Proud to Be a Founding Member of the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps

This morning the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps was announced, and we’re incredibly proud that Spanning is a founding member. This is an all-star group of companies with a common goal: to make Google Apps even more useful for our customers.

What is the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps?

The Cloud Alliance for Google Apps is an alliance of like-minded companies from the Google Apps community that have formed to create a trusted network of product developers for its customers, driving knowledge and awareness of third party Google applications. All the members have developed integrated products to complement, enhance, and further the adoption of the Google Apps platform.

Who are the other members of the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps?

In addition to Spanning, the following companies have committed to providing resources and opportunities for their customers through the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps:

• SherpaTools by Cloud Sherpas
• Insightly
• Expensify
• Okta
• Smartsheet
• Runmyprocess

What does this mean for our current customers?

Cloud Alliance for Google Apps members are top in their product category and have been chosen to participate based on the consideration of a variety of factors including Marketplace ranking, usability and integration with Google Apps, product reviews, and overall reputation with Google, among other criteria.

Spanning and the other members of the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps have committed to offering benefits and various support resources to our customers through the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps, including discounts, monthly webinars, newsletters, and events. Alliance members’ products cover a range of categories, allowing for each product to serve a distinct need and enhance the overall user experience.

What’s Next?

Mark your calendars—starting in just a couple of weeks, the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps will kick off a “CloudSmart” webinar series:

• November 16 — “Get Acquainted with Google Apps” from Cloud Sherpas
• December 7 — “Single Sign-On & AD Integration for Google Apps” from Okta
• January 11 — “Back Up Your Data” from Spanning
• January 25 — “Create Expense Reports That Don’t Suck!” from Expensify
• February 15 — “Project Collaboration Your Team Will Actually Use” from Smartsheet
• February 29 — “Manage Your Customer Databases” from Insightly
• March 14 — “Save Money and Time Adding Workflow to Google Apps” from RunMyProcess

Want to learn more?

We invite you to support the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps and sign up to gain access to various benefits by visiting CloudAllianceForGoogleApps.com and registering for updates.

Spanning Loves Resellers

I am very happy to report that today, we at Spanning are closing out the month with some really exciting reseller activity. The Google Apps reseller community is realizing the growing need for backup in their customers’ Google Apps domains, and they are putting their trust in us to fill that need. They believe in our product, and they want their customers to have the peace of mind and security that comes with using Spanning Backup for Google Apps.

We are very excited about the success we have seen this month and can’t wait to watch it grow as we develop more programs and partnerships within the great community of Google Apps resellers.

Thank you for your continued support, resellers!

WordPress Site Incident Post-Mortem

Last week the spanning.com WordPress site was affected by a malware attack which resulted in Google’s displaying a content warning to visitors to the site. The company that hosts our WordPress site, WP Engine, quickly found and fixed the problem.

Note that only the spanning.com site, which is operated by a third party on their own infrastructure, was affected. The Spanning Backup service at spanningbackup.com, which runs on our own secure infrastructure, was not affected.

WP Engine has written a post-mortem of the event explaining the root cause of the problem, the steps taken to remediate it, and the preventative measures taken to prevent similar problems from happening in the future.

Security is of the utmost importance to us, and while this issue had no effect on Spanning Backup, it’s still embarrassing. We’re working with the team at WP Engine to minimize the risk of such lapses in the future.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks,
Charlie

[FIXED] Malware Warning on the spanning.com Site

Update (6-Oct-2011): This problem has been resolved and the warning has been removed from Google. We’re working with our WordPress host now on a detailed post-mortem. When that is complete, we’ll post it here.

This morning Google detected a piece of malware that had been injected into the spanning.com WordPress-based website. The malware has been identified and removed.

It’s important to note that while our public web site was affected, our application was not, and the Spanning Backup service (which runs on completely different infrastructure) was not compromised.

Chrome and Safari users visiting spanning.com saw a warning like the one shown here. A similar warning was included in Google search results. We’ve notified Google that the malware has been removed and are optimistic they’ll remove the warning soon.

The support staff at WPEngine, where we host our public web site, removed the malware and is currently investigating how it got there in the first place. As soon as we have a post-mortem we’ll post the details here.

Again, this issue pertains only to the spanning.com public website and had no effect on the Spanning Backup service. Spanning Backup was not compromised and all customer data remains completely secure.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate o contact us at support@spanning.com.

Thanks,
Charlie

Spanning Announces First Business-Class Backup Service for Gmail

Top-Rated Backup Solution Adds Gmail Backup, Unlimited Storage, 99.9% Uptime SLA

Austin, Texas September 6, 2011

Spanning, the makers of Spanning Backup for Google Apps, today announced the general availability of Spanning Backup for Google Apps v2.0. Launched in September 2010, Spanning Backup is already the highest-rated backup app in the Google Apps Marketplace. The latest release adds business-class backup for Gmail, on top of the existing backup capabilities for Google Apps such as documents, contacts and calendars. Spanning also announced that all customers will now receive unlimited storage space and a 99.9% uptime SLA (service level agreement).

Spanning Backup has already backed up more than 7 billion documents, calendar events, and contacts for Google Apps users. The latest release extends the proven capabilities of the cloud-to-cloud backup product to Gmail data, making Spanning the most reliable, comprehensive backup solution for businesses on Google Apps.

“Gmail backup has been, by far, the most requested capability from our existing customer base,” said Charlie Wood, Spanning Cloud Apps founder and CEO. “After a successful private beta period, we’re excited to make it generally available and start helping businesses better protect their data. Data is the lifeblood of any business, and we’ve built Spanning Backup with a clear understanding of how important it is to protect our customer’s data.”

As more businesses shift to cloud platforms for business computing, the associated business requirements such as secure and reliable backup have lagged behind the adoption rate of services like Google Apps. Spanning Backup meets and exceeds business needs for an easy-to-use cloud-to-cloud backup solution, and has been tested across thousands of customers.

Spanning Backup for Google Apps is certified by TRUSTe and compliant with the US-EU and US-Swiss Safe Harbor Frameworks for privacy. Paired with a 99.9% uptime SLA and unlimited storage, it’s the most reliable choice for IT decision makers across the globe.

“We chose Spanning Backup for Google Apps because it provides incredibly thorough backup capabilities that scale to meet the needs of our nearly 2,000 employees,” said Hilary Croach, CIO of Bay Cove Human Services. “At Bay Cove Human Services, preserving and protecting our data is critical to our ability to serve our clients. With Spanning Backup, we can rest assured that we’re protected against data loss without having to make major investments in complex and bulky legacy solutions.”

Key Features of Spanning Backup for Google Apps v2.0 include:

• Backs up Google Apps email, documents, contacts, and calendars, and more.
• Incremental backup – Spanning Backup transfers only data created or updated since the last backup, optimizing performance and storage requirements.
• Non-destructive backup – Instead of overwriting previously backed up data with newer backups, Spanning Backup retains historical versions of each backup, allowing users to choose which backup snapshot to restore.
• Cloud-to-cloud backup – With Spanning Backup, an organization’s Google Apps data is protected using Amazon Web Services’ cloud infrastrcuture. Like Google, Amazon is a world-class cloud provider with SAS-70 and SSAE-16 certified data centers. Spanning Backup understands how to use Amazon services to provide the highest level of availability.
• Metadata backup and restore – Spanning Backup backs up and restores document directory structures, nested folders, sharing and permissions settings, contact photos, and more.
• Full admin control and privacy – Spanning Backup provides a user recovery impersonation function, so that an administrator can restore a document for an end user without ever being exposed to the contents of the document.
• Dead-simple file recovery and restore processes – Spanning Backup is so simple anyone can use it, but robust enough to meet the needs of corporate IT.
• Certified privacy and security – The Spanning Backup site, application, and Google Apps Marketplace listings are certified for privacy and security by TRUSTe, the leading online privacy solutions provider. In addition, Spanning Backup is certified under the US-EU and US-Swiss Safe Harbor Frameworks.
• 99.9% uptime SLA – Spanning offers a 99.9% uptime service level agreement, matching that offered by Google for Google Apps.

Spanning Backup for Google Apps is the best choice for businesses that need secure and reliable protection against the risk of data loss.

For more information, please visit www.spanning.com/product/spanningbackup.

About Spanning:

Founded in 2010, Spanning helps companies manage and protect their information in the cloud. Spanning Backup, the company’s flagship product, is the top-rated backup solution for Google Apps users and administrators. The company is backed by Foundry Group, and is based in Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.spanning.com.