Mirapoint Inc.
recently announced its next-generation messaging appliance for large corporate networks. Mirapoint’s new Message Director replaces separate message switch and router appliances with a single box, according to the company. Mirapoint has added new security features including antivirus, antispam, content filtering and unified logon. Message Director works with all standards-based messaging software packages, including Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise. Message Director starts at US$26,000 and is now available. For more information, see the company on the Web at www.mirapoint.com.
Lotus Development Corp.
‘s top business partner made a significant move last month to add Microsoft Exchange support to its collection of tools for building enterprise collaborative applications. IT Factory announced it will acquire ECMS, one of the leading developers of collaboration and messaging software for the Exchange platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The ECMS acquisition now positions IT Factory to deliver collaborative applications that will run on both the Notes and Exchange platforms, which could greatly simplify corporate deployment of those types of applications. IT Factory is Lotus’s top business partner and develops several products for that platform, including the ITF Software Development Kit, a development architecture for Notes, and the ITF Business Suite, a set of building blocks for creating applications such as sales force automation and customer service. The ECMS deal adds to the integration foundation IT Factory began laying last year when it acquired Documentaal, whose BowTie software enables bidirectional file and data sharing between Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office.