Biscom Delivery Server Blog

SpaceX is one of those uber-cool companies that is doing what many of us wish we could – launch rocketships. Big ones. I fondly recall my little Estes rocket with the D engine. Well, these days, Elon Musk, one of the founders of PayPal, Tesla motors, and other ventures, has stepped things up from cardboard tubes and solar ignitors with his company Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. He’s launching massive lift vehicles to help provide transportation services as it’s getting pretty hard to supply the international space station with the impending shuttle retirement. And with a bevy of private space companies vying for various forms of space travel for mere mortals, someone needs to be the picks and shovels of the new gold rush.

We had a great conversation with Branden Spikes, CIO of SpaceX and he told us how they use BDS to send their confidential and large files securely and quickly to scientists, researchers, contractors, vendors, and other collaborators. SpaceX employees were spending way too much time sending files instead of launching rockets, so we stepped in and let them focus on what they do best, and let us worry about secure file transfers.

According to Spikes, “One of the biggest benefits of BDS is that it can run on our own network in the way I want to run it. BDS was the only solution that offered this level of configuration and customization….In fact, we’ve reduced the time to encrypt and send files from two hours to less than two minutes.”

Read the full case study if you’re a space nut like me.

Our Legal Practice Manager Charlie Magliato is going to be hosting a webinar on managing large email attachments, with special guest Bruce Bial, IT Director at Riemer & Braunstein. You’ll see how Bruce and his team implemented BDS to handle their secure file transfer needs and eliminated large file attachments from going through their Exchange server.

The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 2-3pm EST.

Click here to register!

I’ll be speaking with Dave Brown from Rockland Trust (see previous blog entry) at the AIIM show in Philadelphia (March 30-April 2, 2009) and AIIM has been kind enough to provide a $200 discount for any new attendees. You can get the discount code here.

It’s going to be a fun session — Dave has a great story to tell, and I hope it helps others see the potential for a secure file transfer solution in their organization.

Biscom Delivery Server is being used in a lot of different ways — sending medical records and clinical data securely, sharing large multimedia files with design studios and PR agencies, distributing software to customers, and working with local, state and federal government agencies.

But one of our more interesting customers is Rockland Trust, a regional bank here in Massachusetts that is one of the few banks that is actually doing well and growing. Dave Brown, their AVP Information Risk/Security Architect, is what I’d call someone with vision. Or at least he saw the potential for BDS in his company. Dave and I are going to be co-presenting at the AIIM 2009 show in Philadelphia on April 1, 2009 on how Rockland Trust is using BDS to address multiple secure delivery projects internally as well as externally.

One of Dave’s many hats involves handling the data transfers when Rockland Trust acquires another bank. These bank conversions involve moving all customer information, deposits, historicals, and balances so that the customers of the acquired bank can, for example, go to an ATM for either of the banks, and get cash out. It’s also nice when the account balances are correct.

Dave’s been doing bank conversions for 20 years, has executed hundreds of acquisitions, and I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say he’s pretty much an expert on this. So, I take his word when he says that before BDS, there was a lot more to worry about, including whether the magnetic tape backups would be delayed because an airport’s snowed in (yes, this really happened!), or if the the tapes would arrive corrupted, or even if the reel to reel systems of the two banks would be compatible. There are a number of potential issues.

Dave used BDS in an acquisition recently and it apparently went so well, he’s “rewritten the book” on bank conversions, and BDS is now part of Rockland’s SOP. He now includes BDS in the project plans of all his acquisitions, and by doing so, the cut over is seamless for the bank’s customers. Instead of closing on Friday, and re-opening Monday, the acquired bank can be open for business on Saturday morning. The ROI for that is something we’re still trying to figure out, but think about this: no opportunity costs of a branch being closed for one or more days, customers don’t have to wait several days before being able to access their accounts via ATM or online, and the increased confidence and trust customers will have with a bank where everything is handled quickly, efficiently, and smoothly.

So, if you’re going to AIIM this April, you can hear Dave talk about how Rockland Trust is using BDS, not just for bank conversions, but also in all other parts of the organization.