Excel Micro: Reselling Google, Developing Email Consolidation

We’ve hit our first VAR on Talkin’ Cloud’s list of the Top 50 MSPs and VARs in Cloud Computing. It turns out that Excel Micro, which bills itself as the largest authorized distributor of Google Message and Security Compliance Solutions worldwide, has also developed its own reseller partners for its cloud-based solutions. Not bad for a company that began as a break-fix company in Pennsylvania in the early 1990s and specialized in computer and network repair.

“We created a cloud-based solution back in the ’90s before the cloud was called the cloud,” said Excel Micro Founder and Owner Joe Vaccone. “We provided virus protection, spam protection, and bundled it as a desktop antivirus with spam filtering over e-mail.” Excel Micro made a name for itself by reselling Postini, an e-mail security and archiving service, but didn’t begin its mini distribution of cloud-based filtering until 2002-03. In 2007, the game changed for Excel Micro. “We became a platinum reseller of Postini. Then Postini was acquired by Google and relabeled as Google Message and Security Compliance,” said Vaccone.

Google quickly retained Excel Micro as a reseller of the rebranded Google Message and Security Compliance solution, which is where Excel Micro stands today. Excel Micro has 800,000 users mainly in North America and has formed its own 3,000-member reseller group for its cloud-based solutions. That’s no surprise to Vaccone: “There’s only so much a technician can do,” he said. “With the cloud, the sky is the limit in terms of growing your business.”

Excel Micro has two main goals for this fiscal year:

1. Development of Google Apps tools: Excel Micro is working hard to develop “a bunch” of tools and get them into the Google Marketplace, Vaccone said.

2. E-mail Consolidation: Excel Micro is developing a cloud-based e-mail consolidation service that lets end users import all of their e-mails from their servers to Google Messaging. Vaccone said e-mail consolidation is already available for companies with 100+ users, and Excel Micro’s newest development is for smaller businesses and is scheduled to be released in mid-July.

Excel Micro is an authorized reseller of the entire Google Apps for Business suite, a completely cloud-based suite of communication and collaboration tools. Pricing varies according to the number of users. You can contact Excel Micro for specific pricing details.

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