2004 – 2005
IronPort Systems
A brief chapter with an email-security startup, years before it became part of Cisco.
Worth recording on its own rather than as a footnote. IronPort Systems was an independent email-security-appliance startup based in San Bruno, California, years before Cisco acquired it in 2007. This engagement predates that acquisition entirely, so it was a relationship with an independent company and its own technology, not with Cisco.
Channel development and pre-sales, 2004 to 2005
Channel development and pre-sales technical consulting for IronPort's C-Series email-security appliances, across 2004 and 2005. It was the early-stage mix a young security vendor needs in a new market: building channel interest, and giving the technical pre-sales support that turns interest into deployments.
What IronPort was, and became
The C-Series were purpose-built email-security appliances, known for reputation-based filtering at a time when spam and email-borne threats were escalating fast. Cisco acquired the company in 2007 and folded the technology into what became its Email Security Appliance line. That later history is why the name is familiar today, but the engagement here was with the independent company that came before it.
Certifications
No certification track. This was a short channel and pre-sales engagement.