javivazquez at eBox

Having a great product is not enough to make business, everyone who has run a company knows that. If they don’t see you, you don’t exist. Since our company web site showed up a couple of months ago, the number of qualified leads (potential qualified partners) has been growing up steadily.

Geographically, they are coming mainly from US and Spain, although they are other countries such as Italy and Brazil catching up fast. Surprisingly, A company from Mauritius has been the last one in filling up our “become a partner” form…

Having in mind the where the visits to our websites -both eBox Platform and eBox Technologies- come from, Germany is missing despite of being the third country in number of visitors, very close to US (first) and Spain (second). I am puzzled, why don’t we have any VAR or MSP from Germany knocking in our door yet?.

Anyway, things are going quite well. In the next few weeks we are going to make public the list with the first authorized eBox partners, both Service and Training, from countries such as US, Spain, Mexico or Singapur.

Having in mind than we just sign partners who show real commitment -say, those which are able to offer a superb quality service-, and the time we employ with them to define and develop their business plan with eBox, we should reach the number of 15-20 partners during the next 16 weeks.

Looking at the map and how (geographically) diverse is the people who approach us it’s really motivating. More partners and more diversity, more fun.

eBox Platform 1.2 has been officially published and it’s ready for download from our repositories.

The latest version of eBox Platform includes a lot of new stuff, but I would highlight a couple of new modules that complete the functionality of eBox UTM and eBox Unified Communication Server:

The Intrusion Detection System (IDS, based on Snort) and the PBX that allows telephone over IP  (VoIP, based on Asterisk).

Furthermore, as the announcement points out:

“[...] eBox Platform 1.2 is the first partner-ready version, as it allows the registration of different eBox installations in eBox Control Center to facilitate remote access, managed services and advanced support for a group of eBox networks [...]”

It means that eBox is ready to sign with the partners which are currently in negotiations, offering them third level support for deployment and maintenance, certified training and the technology needed to become a managed services providers (MSPs).

Last, but not least, this release comes also with a surprise for your Ubuntu based desktops:  eBox Desktop, wich provides authentication against eBox LDAP and auto-configuration for the services provided by eBox (mail, samba, Jabber, VoIP, …).

From eBox 1.2 on, eBox Platform will be released on a 6 months basis. Our next stable will be eBox 1.4, which is expected for early January 2010.

What will eBox 1.4 include? Don’t go so fast, enjoy eBox 1.2 and stay tuned , the new features for 1.4 will be announced in the next few weeks.

Everything interesting in life starts by a discovery, reaching a new state or situation not known before. The eagerness to discover is, therefore, what motivates most people, even in business.

A few weeks ago I have arrived at eBox Technologies, a free software Spanish start-up, to work as the COO. eBox Tech. is starting to develop the business around a nice free software product with a vibrant community: eBox platform.

Although my 7 years previous working experience were also closely related to entrepreneurship and free software, working as manager at Igalia -a 40 people free sofware services company I co-founded with several college classmates-, to help developing a business  around a free sofware product is something (more or less) new for me. Moreover, joining a new company, community, city is just a whole discovery and learning experience, something that I really love to do…

However, it has not been only the discovery what’s took me here, but also the challenge. For eBox Tech., the challenge, its vision, is to make eBox Platform globally the best tool for efficient administration of computer networks, always through partners which can adapt our offering to the context and needs of their regional markets.

I hope to learn during this new challenge at least as much as I did before, and hope also to share my thoughts and discoveries with anyone interested in this another free software entrepreneur’s experience. Stay tunned.