javivazquez at eBox

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.

When speaking about open source software, lack of support and documentation is an always present comment.

Until eBox Technologies (the company) appeared, that was true also for eBox Platform (the community product, an easy open source small business server).

In the last 2 weeks, we have taken a couple of important steps to solve the documentation issue.

On the one hand, nice documentation on our upcoming eBox 1.2 has gone public: http://doc.ebox-platform.com

Currently, it is only in Spanish, but in the next few weeks an English version will be also available.

On the other hand, the very first eBox screencast has been uploaded to different video websites such as Blip.tv, vimeo and youtube.

Before the Summer ends, more 2-3 minutes screencast on eBox Platform and eBox Control Center will be available.

I remember my days working for a free software services company, where people asked once and again: “how do you make money from open source?”. The answer was simple: “We sell time (hours), like lawyers do”.

Obviously, it’s not that easy, but it worked.

From a open source product company, such eBox Technologies is, the answer is also short, but it needs a longer explanation: “We combine open source with SaaS”.

eBox Technologies is a 100% channel focused company, say, we sell through our global partner network: VARs (Value Added Resellers) and MSPs (Managed Services Providers).

We offer to those IT companies the technology and services to fulfill their customers’ computer networks needs.

On the one hand, the support and training services for efficiently deploying and administering any network service that a SMB requires. eBox Platform, open source small business server (SBS), rules them all: Gateway, UTM, Infrastucture, Office and Unified Communications Server. It’s open source and it’s free.

On the other hand, a fault-tolerant solution to administer and monitor eBox Platform installations from a single interface. eBox Control Center is SaaS, web based and from the cloud.

In summary, eBox Technologies targets the SMB market through a global partner network formed by VARs and MSPs, offering them an open source unified network server -eBox Platform- and the SaaS technology to efficiently manage it -eBox Control Center- .

It’s a business model designed for growth and world domination.

As one of the top ten finalists at Innovate! Europe, eBox is participating in a trade mission to Sillicon Valley.

Visiting venture capital (VC) funds is not only a way to share thoughts on the business strategy of our young company  -starting relationships that could eventually result in funding-, but also a nice way to see nice sport cars. Those at the parking lots of VC firms…

I am not keen on cars unless they are convertible, just because I love feeling  the wind. My preferences are bikes and public transport, as more eco-friendly transport means. However, sport cars are a good way to illustrate which stage eBox Technologies is currently in:

At eBox, we are already driving an impressive orange-green sport car, it’s called eBox Platform. But we do it slowly,  burning the fuel (seed funding) got last year at the lowest rate possible. Actually, as many entrepreneurs, half time we push it by ourselves to slow down the fuel consumption…

We currently drive eBox through a secondary road. It’s full of potholes and not many fuel stations seem to be in our way. Keep the burning rate low is mandatory while we not reach the highway, something we consider likely to happen in 4-5 months from now.

Once we reach the highway, it will be the right moment to fill our gas tank up, to be the fastest in the non speed limited highway of tech business.

The conversations started with VCs these days have that aim. Who wouldn’t like feeling the wind while driving fast an impressive orange-green convertible?

During the just on Wednesday finished Innovate! Europe hold in Zaragoza, we have enjoyed a couple of days with excellent and experienced people from the IT world, and also raise in our own confidence on eBox as a promising and attractive company.

Not by chance, eBox was selected within the top ten finalists among the >100 initial applicants and the 34 finalists that came to Zaragoza from the whole Europe. Moreover, our company was the only Spanish in that 10 most promising European start-ups group.

However, despite of the many interesting lessons and good advise I personally gathered, I first would like to share one not really that important, but that caught my attention and suggest me to continue with the posts dedicated (more or less intentionally) our foundations as a company. That was working from “home”, or teleworking.

This small lesson, it is referred to coordination among staff who works from anywhere, mostly not together. In our case, we are 11 eleven guys working mainly from Zaragoza, but actually: 2 are based in Ireland and the rest of us work very often from home or any other cities.

In my case, I like going to the office every day, but also I work at least 7-10 days each month from Vigo (my original city, in Galicia), Madrid, Barcelona or any other place I go to visit my family and friends, or just as a tourist. And I am probably one of the guys who are more often working from our HQ…

On the one hand, this situation is something we like and look for: eBox staff is encouraged to work from wherever they want and when they like to. We don’t have fixed time schedules or any obligation to go to the office. On the other hand, it raises some issues: it needs an extra effort to be well coordinated.

Reaching to the point, Marten Mickos pointed out on his talk at Innovate that 70% of his former company MySQL still works from home. 70% of 400 guys of from >40 cities worldwide, with different time zones and the like. And the 2 main things he cited to keep this working, IMO, were:

• Pick people who like working mainly alone, from home. Kind of lone wolfs.
• Reporting, reporting and reporting, with objectives clearly set for every single people in the company.

Here at eBox we rely on tickets (tasks, whatever) and wiki to keep high the coordination among us, being Redmine the  tool selected for it. Some people don’t like that much planning and being accountable for achieving objectives, but what’s more fair and efficient that let guys planning themselves as far as the global objectives of the company are reached?

In a company that pretends to be global by nature as it was MySQL, MySQL itself is the best example to follow regarding work organization.