| Postini, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Google (acquired in 2007) |
| Initial release | 1999; 27 years ago (1999) |
| Final release | / 2014 |
| Platform | Cross-platformweb service |
| Type | E-mail andWeb security |
| Website | google |
Postini, Inc.[1] was ane-mail,Web security, and archiving service owned byGoogle from 2007 until its closure. It providedcloud computing services for filteringe-mail spam andmalware (before it was delivered to a client'smail server), offered optional e-mail archiving, and protected client networks from web-borne malware. In November 2011, Google announced the discontinuation of Postini in August 2012.
Postini was astartup company founded in 1999 by Shinya Akamine, Gordon Irlam, Brian Maggi, and Scott Petry inRedwood City, California, United States.[2][3] It was backed byAugust Capital, with second-round funding from August as well asSummit Partners Accelerator Fund andSun Microsystems.[4] By February 2005, it was operating ten U.S.data centers, processing 2.5 billion e-mail messages weekly, and providing anti-spam services for more than 4,200 companies and "6 million end users, including workers atMerrill Lynch,Circuit City,Rayovac, andHormel Foods, the company that makesSpam, the canned meat product".[2] Later in 2005 it moved to nearbySan Carlos, California.[5]
On July 9, 2007, Google announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Postini.[6] Google paid $625 million in cash for the acquisition.[7] The former company's services were then marketed as "Google Postini Services."
In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Google Web Security, which was acquired by Google as part of Postini.[8] On August 21, 2012, Google announced it would be shutting down all of Postini's web services and folding the service's users intoGoogle Apps.[9] After a multi-year migration effort, the last customers were migrated to Google Apps in the second half of 2015.[citation needed]
