ScanSafe marks fourth anniversary of introduction of first SaaS Web Security Solution and one billionth Web threat blocked
Company’s Leading Suite of Managed Web and IM Security Services Gains Momentum with 180 Percent Revenue Growth, Global Expansion, New Customer Acquisition, Industry Accolades and Continued Technology Innovation
ScanSafe, the pioneer and leading provider of Web Security-as-a-Service, today celebrated the fourth anniversary of its launch of the first managed Web security service. Since the launch of ScanSafe Web Malware Scanning, in late 2003, the company has scanned over 180 billion Web requests and blocked more than 1 billion Web threats in real time—making it the largest global provider of Web Security-as-a-Service.
With 180 percent revenue growth over the same time period last year, 13 straight quarters of revenue growth and 130 percent growth in its customer base over the past 12 months, the company is poised to have a record year.
“2007 has been a banner year for ScanSafe,” said Eldar Tuvey, CEO and co-founder of ScanSafe. “The company has established itself as the undisputed leader in Web Security-as-a-Service and has proven it is an excellent alternative to traditional on-premise solutions. Our phenomenal growth clearly confirms that the market is seeking best-of-breed options, something that is further enabled by our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) approach. As we head into 2008, we remain focused on continued innovation in the SaaS security space and ramping up our global operations to support growth.”ScanSafe Meets Growing Demand for Security SaaS
As more and more businesses move to SaaS solutions, ScanSafe has bolstered its customer portfolio with deployments at global companies including Alliance Coal, The Blackstone Group, ICI, Pizza Hut, Lloyds and Round Table/Dairy Queen. The company achieved 328 percent growth in new customer contract value signed in the last 12 months compared to the equivalent time period last year. ScanSafe also continued to expand its partnership portfolio through strategic agreements with leading technology companies including Kaspersky Labs and NEC.
“With 46 distributed stores across rural Texas, we sought a solution that enabled us to create, manage and enforce appropriate Web use policies remotely,” said Mike Stump, director of information technology at Round Table Corp., a franchisee of Dairy Queen. “ScanSafe met our Web security and filtering needs while also providing cost effective service and support. We deployed ScanSafe’s Web Malware Scanning and Web Filtering services to all of our locations within a matter of hours and have not had a single occurrence of malware since.”
Global Expansion
In 2007, ScanSafe continued its global growth, building on its leadership in the UK and US markets. It established a sales presence in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The company has also forged key partnerships with regional resellers including TOPNORDIC in the Nordics, NOXS in the Netherlands and FVC in the Middle East and North Africa. During 2007, ScanSafe also entered the Asian market with significant growth in customers in China and Australia. The company currently protects customers based in over 50 countries leveraging an extensive network of data centers positioned around the world.
Technology Innovation
Recent advancements of ScanSafe’s service include the early 2007 release of SearchAhead, the industry’s first corporate safe search service. SearchAhead scans results from popular search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN, providing advance warning of any malware and guidance on acceptable or unacceptable websites, based on the customer’s Web filtering policies. Search results are traffic-light and color-coded according to their status and these warning icons let users know in advance when a particular link will be blocked or logged.
“As a marketing research firm, we have a real need to allow our account executives and project managers access to the Web and search engines in order to gather relevant information,” said Michael Gray, chief technology officer, Socratic Technologies, Inc. “SearchAhead helps educate users about our Web use policy and puts them in control of ensuring they don’t violate it—they can police themselves.”
Third Party Accolades
During the year, ScanSafe garnered recognition from industry analysts and media, including being positioned in “Visionaries” quadrant of the Gartner, Inc. “Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateway, 2007”1 being named “Best Content Security Solution” in the 2007 SC Magazine Reader Trust Awards and receiving the SIIA 2007 CODiE Award for “Best Software-as-a-Service Solution.”
In addition, ScanSafe was included as one of five technology vendors in the Gartner, Inc. "Cool Vendors in Infrastructure Protection, 2007"2 which states that “ScanSafe delivered the first successful in-the-cloud (ITC) secure Web gateway service — something that telecom providers have been promising for years.”
ScanSafe is also listed among the “Hot Companies” in the security industry in Michael Moe's book “Finding the Next Starbucks,” an indispensable guide to spotting growth opportunities. “Hot Companies,” according to Moe, are companies with potential to become the “Stars of Tomorrow.”
In August, Redmond Magazine also published a Web security product review, assigning ScanSafe an impressive 8.4 points out of a possible ten. Reviewer Peter Varhol writes that “setting up the service takes only 10-15 minutes and you are done,” and that “thanks to dynamic scanning, a unique feature of ScanSafe is its ability to identify and mark URLs that appear in search engine pages.” Additionally, he emphasizes that "ScanSafe is highly customizable with the ability to finely tune settings both across the organization and to individuals."
Industry Certifications
In January, ScanSafe announced that its Enterprise Connector has achieved OPSEC™ (Open Platform for Security) certification from Check Point Software Technologies. Through OPSEC certification, ScanSafe's services seamlessly integrate with Check Point's market-leading VPN-1Power gateway, enabling Check Point customers to take full advantage of ScanSafe's security services by simply redirecting all Port 80 traffic for real-time malware scanning and enforcement of policy.
ScanSafe is also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. As part of their partner portfolio, ScanSafe is the only Web security-as-a-service provider that is efficiently interoperable with a Microsoft ISA server plug-in that enables organizations using an ISA server to quickly and effectively begin blocking malware and instant messaging attacks. For more information about ScanSafe integration with ISA server, visit http://www.scansafe.com/our_technology/isa_server_integration.
About ScanSafe
ScanSafe is the largest global provider of Web Security-as-a-Service, ensuring a safe and productive Internet environment for businesses. ScanSafe solutions keep viruses and spyware off corporate networks and allow businesses to control and secure the use of the Web and instant messaging. As a fully managed service, ScanSafe's solutions require no hardware, upfront capital costs or maintenance and provide unparalleled real-time threat protection. Powered by its proactive, multilayered Outbreak Intelligence TM threat detection technology, ScanSafe scans more than 7 billion Web requests and blocks 70 million threats each month for customers in over 50 countries.
With offices in London and San Mateo, California, ScanSafe is privately owned and financed by Benchmark Capital and Scale Venture Partners. The company received a 2007 CODiE award for Best Software as a Service Solution, the SC Magazine Europe Readers Trust Award for Best Content Security Solution and was named one of Red Herring’s Top 100 Technology companies. For more information, visit www.scansafe.com.
1. Gartner, Inc. “Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateway, 2007” by Peter Firstbrook, Lawrence Orans and Arabella Hallawell, June 4, 2007
2. Gartner, Inc. “Cool Vendors in Infrastructure Protection, 2007,” by Ray Wagner, John Girard, Peter Firstbrook, John Pescatore and Neil MacDonald, March 13, 2007.
