Spam takes another hit: email authentication available to millions of Google Apps customers

Google has been an early and consistent supporter of email authentication technologies, which help ensure senders are who they say they are, and in turn help to curb spam.  Interlockit.com configures a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record as a standard component of our Google Apps implementations that prevents spammers from sending messages with forged From addresses from your company domain.

On January 6th, 2011 Google made available the ability for Google Apps customers to sign their outgoing messages with DKIM, so that your sent mail is less likely to get caught up in recipients' spam filters.  Think of it as a finger print on your outgoing email that a spammer can't duplicate.  We've tested it for a few weeks and definitely recommend setting this up on all Google Apps accounts.

Google Apps is the first major email platform to offer simple DKIM signing at no extra cost other than the labour to configure it.  Once again the power of the cloud has made it possible to bring this feature to millions of customers quickly and affordably.

It takes an Interlockit.com team member about 30 minutes to configure DKIM on your DNS hosting control panel and on your Google Apps account.

If you are interested in having this feature enabled to ensure that more of your outgoing email reaches its destination  give us a call at (416) 840-6268.

Rogers Blackberry with Google Sync and Blackberry Internet Service Synchronization

Watch out for an issue we just encountered today with Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) on Rogers with a Blackberry Bold running Blackberry OS 5.0:

• if you change your price plan with Rogers it will reset your BIS settings and turn on Sync Contacts, and Sync Calendar via BIS automatically.  This will cause massive duplication of Google Calendar entries and corruption of address fields in Google Contacts if you also have Google Sync installed and running on your phone.  The difference between synching with BIS and Google Sync was discussed on a prior blog post here
• We still recommend using the Google Sync because it works better and faster than the BIS sync

The solution is to sign out of Google Sync before making changes to your account.  The next day review your BIS setup via the Email setup icon on your phone and make sure the Synchronization of calendar and contacts is turned off.  Then restart/login to Google Sync again.

Update April 19, 2011: We're seeing this issue much more frequently now across Rogers, Telus, and Bell.  They are upgrading their backend BIS systems so suddently Contact and Calendar sync can get turned on with zero warning causing corruption of Calendar and Contacts.  We hope that the cell phone companies will work with RIM to warn users before making the surprise upgrade.  As a result of this we strictly turn on the BIS Contact and Calendar Sync if supported by the phone.

New Year's Predictions and Milestones Achieved

Interlockit.com has now migrated over 2000 users to Google Apps!

The majority of our larger customers have migrated from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 but we've also helped organizations of all sizes move away from traditional ISP hosted POP3/IMAP email accounts with Easyhosting.com, Bellhosting.ca, Telushosting.com, Godaddy.com, Networksolutions.com, and even from Hosted Microsoft Exchange at Sherweb.com.

One customer install really highlights an advantage of going all web browser based.  They had attempted to use a Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server solution for their employees spread around the world and in some countries where internet data lines are unreliable.  Going web browser based with Google Apps dramatically improved their ability to communicate and collaborate in real time across the company.  In particular they can finally communicate electronically with their employees in the Democratic Republic of Congo via Google Apps.

We're seing an increase in inquiries for Microsoft Online Services/BPOS deployments also.  Ultimately we deploy what the customer chooses but certainly discuss the pro's and con's of each option.  The head to head competition between Google and Microsoft is great for our customers in the end.

Our number one prediction for 2011 is that the pace of adoption of Cloud Computing solutions like Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS/Office 365 will continue to accelerate; and, as an early adopter that focuses exclusively on Cloud Solutions, Interlockit.com will continue to both save our customers money over the long term but also provide them with a better way of running their business.

Interlockit.com - Moving Businesses to the Cloud