20 Business insight
Clearswift: providing IT security and peace of mind in a challenging world
To put it simply, Clearswift protects companies and their employees from the risks of our highly- communicative Internet-connected business world ... and lets them get on with their work without worry
Of course, the IT security world in which Clearswift operates is by no means simple. Its challenges are worldwide, 24/7 and ever changing ... within a battlefield where the unseen combatants range from pranksters to gangsters. Reassuringly, Clearswift is meeting that challenge, writes John Burbedge.
“We supply security products that prevent nasty things coming in, or good stuff going out when it shouldn’t. If businesses are not taking care of that there is the potential for something to happen and cause grief,“ explains Alyn Hockey, director of product management.
“Apart from security product creation, a lot of what we do is about behavioural change, making people more aware of the technological risks out there.“
In recent years those risks have changed.
“Ten years ago malware used to be disruptive, sent by people for fun, notoriety, or to prove a point by trashing a system. Nowadays, they do it for financial benefit, trying to come in stealthily, unnoticed in order to exploit the system and steal resources or information.
“There is a whole underground economy based upon this rogue trade, with a black-market where people can rent malware or servers to launch attacks.“
Clearswift is well aware of this dark underworld. Hockey accepts there is a constant arms race – “We build something new, they try to beat it“ – but the comforting knowledge is that Clearswift’s highly-skilled engineering response team is rarely called upon to provide time- critical ’patches’ “to counteract anything we were not expecting.“
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Business and lifestyle change is also presenting new security challenges. Ubiquitous IT communication, allied to a business drive towards greater collaboration, makes it easy to unwittingly do something wrong with one errant click.
“Much of our work is about securing companies against their own mistakes,“ says Hockey.
Corporate reputations can change overnight through lack of IT security. “The last thing that companies want nowadays is to be on the tabloid front pages.“
The rise of mobile connectivity, the cloud and BYOD are all fresh security challenges. Businesses that are not catering for these threats are not positioning themselves correctly, says Hockey. “The inherent risk is that through increased IT access, companies may not be able to secure their key data.“
One other market driver is austerity. “Everyone wants the biggest bang for their bucks, buying by their budget and not what they actually need. It’s a bit like buying third-party car insurance not comprehensive, which for IT security is perhaps a false economy.“
Clearswift has established business-proven content inspection products in MIMEsweeper and its SECURE Gateway portfolio for trouble-free email (launched 2006), web (2007) and file content inspection (2012). But, it is constantly developing fresh and innovative features such as automatic redaction to avoid unwanted transmission of sensitive material.
Clearswift provides ’toolbox’ products that can deploy different
Alyn Hockey
features and components, to suit the nature and demands of a company. “Our USP is our ability to handle content to a very high specification, and be able to deliver security in forms that work for SMEs or major enterprises, right up to international military requirements.“
While Clearswift survived the recession quite well, says Hockey, supportive funding from mid-market investor Lyceum Capital has enabled rapid and profitable recent progress – better commercial planning, burgeoning engineering research, and new product-line development. “Lyceum is enabling us to grow. We’ve taken on more engineers, are building more products, and we are now looking at M&A opportunities too.“
Being proactive not reactive is a constant aim. Almost 50% of the company’s worldwide employees are forward focused, tackling market change, working on product R&D. Clearswift’s cutting- edge IT engineering is mainly handled inhouse but it does use offshore and agile methods to complement development.
If Clearswift sees something interesting within the sector, it is not averse to buying innovatory talent and processes too. Thames Valley IT technology clustering has been a definite advantage in finding skilled staff, adds Hockey.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2013 Company: Clearswift Systems
Origin: 1995, created as Clearswift 2001
Southern Tech 100 position: No 39
Specialism: IT security systems and solutions
Main business focus: B2B (70% private, 30% public sector)
Turnover: £19.2 million (March 2011)
Employees: 172
Location: HQ – Arlington Business Park, Theale, Berks.
Offices: Sydney, Munich, Tokyo, Madrid, New Jersey USA.
Clearswift’s products and tailored solutions enable over 17,000 organisations in 50 countries to manage and maintain non-compromised data, email and web security.
“We aren’t just doing more of the same. We are changing the game by developing new capabilities. There is more emphasis on information governance, data leakage, and simple deployment of products, for example.
“We’ve got the next three years of product engineering lined up. We’ve got a road-map for the future to show customers.“
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