Brad Feld

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NewsGator Enterprise Server Announced

Aug 06, 2005
Category Investments

NewsGator announced the NewsGator Enterprise Server this week.  Ross Carlson (my superstud IT guy) installed Beta 2 this week – I think it’s awesome.  When I first invested in NewsGator a year ago, I bought into Greg Reinacker’s vision of RSS as a platform technology and NewsGator as the platform company for providing RSS reader capability.  At the time, there was a some emerging buzz around RSS, but over the past year it has picked up incredible speed and is now working its way into mainstream and enterprise computing.

NewsGator Enterprise Server is another component of a product roadmap that Greg laid out in February which includes the web (NewsGator Online), Microsoft Outlook (NewsGator Outlook Edition), Desktop (NewsGator FeedDemon Edition – via our acquisition of Nick Bradbury’s company and superb product), Mobile (yeah … Mobile Edition), Private Label Edition (e.g VNU France and Denver Post News Hound), Microsoft Media Center (NewsGator Media Center Edition), and now Microsoft Exchange and the enterprise (via NewsGator Enterprise Server).

NewsGator Enterprise Server features include:

  • Optional integration with Microsoft Exchange, enabling users to read RSS feeds in Outlook, Outlook Web Access, Pocket Outlook, Entourage and other Exchange-integrated applications without installing any desktop client software.
  • Optional integration with MS Active Directory allows for single sign-on and group administration and management.
  • Based on the same engine that powers the award-winning NewsGator Online Services, already proven to be highly scalable.
  • Consolidates and reduces bandwidth consumption by periodically scanning each feed only once, regardless of how many users are subscribed.
  • Centralized deployment and management that requires no client software installation or plug-ins.
  • Designed to be installed in hours, rather than days (Ross projected an under 30 minute install).

In addition, NewsGator is paying attention and addressing a bunch of prospective RSS-related security issues.  Brian Livingston – editor of Windows Secrets – has a great article up on this where he highlights the potential security issues with podcasts and how NewsGator’s FeedStation product handles the issues effectively. 

NewsGator has some material available on the web site, including a product overview, business white paper, technical white paper, and data sheet.  The projected release date for NewsGator Enterprise Server is current 9/30/05.  However, given the stability of Beta 2, I expect to see a release candidate shortly.  If you have interest in being in the beta program and/or being an early adopter, feel free to drop me an email and I’ll get you connected with the right folks at NewsGator.