Gwava
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| Developer(s) | Beginfinite |
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| Stable release | GWAVA 4 / Linux Dec. 2006, NetWare Jan. 2007, Windows Mar. 2007 |
| Type | Anti-Spam/Anti-Virus |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.gwava.com [1] |
GWAVA is a Montreal based company that sells software supporting Novell GroupWise. GWAVA's official corporate name is GWAVA Technologies, Inc. in the United States and GWAVA, Inc. in Canada. GWAVA is also the name of Anti-Spam/Anti-Virus proprietary software designed by Beginfinite to protect Novell GroupWise systems. GWAVA and the other applications in the GWAVA family can run on several different platforms including NetWare, Linux, and Windows servers. Beginfinite first introduced GWAVA in 2001.
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[edit] History
GWAVA was founded in October 2001 in Montreal by Marc St-Arnaud and Charles Taite. The company's original name was Beginfinite and in 2008 the company came to be known by its flagship product name, GWAVA.
In addition to Marc and Charles forming the company, two developers, far removed from Montreal, were the ones to develop the actual working product. Josh Gibbs, in Auckland New Zealand, and Michael Bell of San Francisco actually created the product upon which Marc and Charles built the company.
GWAVA the product was launched at a time that Internet Email viruses were running rampant. Viruses like Code Red, Nimda, Melissa, and I love you were downing Microsoft Exchange servers around the world. GWAVA had a unique approach to solving the virus problem, instead of attempting to fight viruses on the desktop or on at the gateway, GWAVA installed itself directly inside the email infrastructure. This allows the blocking of viruses that enter through other methods than just the SMTP Gateway.
The name GWAVA is an achronym meaning GroupWise Anti-Virus Agent. The product works only with Novell GroupWise. This was a decision that Marc and Charles made early in the company's history, to focus on a very narrow market that was not being served by other vendors.
The company was created as a private company, funded by both Marc and Charles. The timing was perfect for the company as the viruses continued to attack email servers worldwide.
Then SPAM became more of an issue than viruses and GWAVA modified itself to be an effective Anti-Spam tool as well. In 2005, a survey indicated that GWAVA had captured 50% of the GroupWise market.
GWAVA then began to expand into other products, but still staying tightly focused on their niche market of supporting Novell GroupWise. The next product was Redline, developed by Ulrich Neummann from Germany, Redline became a successful second product for GWAVA by managing and monitoring GroupWise infrastructure.
GWAVA's current management team includes Perry Owen as VP of North America Sales, Richard Bliss as VP of Global Marketing, Herbi Lefering as VP of EMEA Sales, Taylor Cochrane as Director of Product Management.
