Norwegian ISP Altibox chooses Alinto’s secure email platform to provide messaging services to its clients

Norwegian ISP Altibox has just decided to outsource its email platform to Alinto, with the aim of modernising its messaging services for 180 000 clients in the Nordics. The services provided are based on the SOGomail server and the Cleanmail security service, hosted by Alinto. This move happens a few months after the takeover of the SOGo open-source project by Alinto. It confirms the editors’ ability to address projects on an international scale and cover the whole email chain with GDPR-compliant solutions.

Thomas Lunde, Head of hybrid cloud services and Marius Ekeland, Product Manager for security and email at Altibox share their feedback about the cooperation with Alinto.

Modernisation of an email platform used by 180 000 clients

Until 2022, Altibox had a messaging platform built and operated in-house. As that platform started to require extensive maintenance operations, Altibox had to move to a new solution. 

“We had two options : discontinue the service and delete all the emails – which was not acceptable from a client standpoint, or outsource our email services as we did not have any internal resources to create a new solution”,  Marius Ekeland explains.

Thus, the company, which provides email services to 180 000 clients, decided to outsource to an external provider. “Email service is not our core business. We just need to deliver it in the correct way, with a secure manner”, Thomas Lunde adds.

Aligned on features, datacenter compliance and ecological expectations

After issuing an RFP, Altibox chose Alinto’ solutions. The services provided are based on the SOGomail server and Cleanmail security service hosted by Alinto. The ISP appreciated the simplicity of the product and the operational stability of the Alinto solution. “Their package provides the best value for us, as it includes insights and access to support as well as an administration portal. This would give us the visibility we needed to properly run the service. 

Also, the data centers’ locations are GDPR-compliant and have high ecological expectations. That is essential for us”, Thomas Lunde notes.

Altibox’s primary need was a fully functional email service, with no plan to expand in the business area of email. “Many suppliers focused too much on additional functionalities, but we just wanted to offer an email service that really works, and nothing else. Alinto listened to our needs”, Marius Ekeland says.

Meeting security and migration expectations

Security is of course of primary importance for Altibox. “The Cleanmail functionality is a big bonus for us because we are constantly strengthening the security of our services as an ISP. So, that matched our strategy”, Markus Ekeland confirms. 

Migration of existing mailboxes was a big challenge. Altibox had to migrate 180 terabytes of data. When the migration occurred, Alinto’s teams were on-site, which was really convenient. “The technical migration went smoothly.  We migrated compressed data files, with some uncertainty about what would be the final volume, once uncompressed. Alinto had to make some short notice adjustments, and they proved to be very reactive. From my end, I am really happy because it is a big move”,  Thomas Lunde adds.

About Alinto :

Founded in 2000, Alinto became an international player in the email business: webmail hosting, anti-spam, email server… through several products:

• SOGomail: Carrier-grade mail server for organizations that are looking for a proven European alternative.
• Cleanmail: Best-in-class email filtering & AI technology to protect your email communication from any risk & threats.