Jahnavi- Can you explain the concept of the BLACKbox to us?
Vishal- If I explain BLACKbox in simple terms, it is like a swiss knife. It has a compact design and serves multiple functions. It gives you the scissors, pliers, magnifying glass, chisel, hook, reamer, screwdriver, corkscrew, can opener and bottle opener. It avoids the hassles of handling the entire toolbox, can be carried in the pocket and proves to be cost-effective compared to the total cost of procuring each tool separately. Similarly, BLACKbox has a compact design with an integrated "single hardware – single software". It serves the functions of a File Server, Mail Server, Domain Server, Backup Server, Storage Server, Endpoint Control Server, Firewall, DLP Solution, and Device Hardening Tool. It avoids the hassles of procuring and integrating multiple server hardware and software solutions, can be maintained by average IT talent and proves to be cost-effective compared to procuring, integrating, and maintaining many separate hardware-software.
Jahnavi- How were you able to come up with the idea of the BLACKbox, and how has it managed to benefit you?
Vishal- When we started up, we observed that most IT solutions are designed and built by the IT industry for large scale usage. Such systems are hardware-intensive, expensive and complex. They are meant to be used by talented IT professionals. In a nutshell, most IT systems in those days were meant for large companies that could afford high costs and could employ highly talented IT professionals. We also visualized that there would be a large segment of Indian Small and Medium Enterprises that would require IT standardization to be able to compete globally. Ironically, neither were these MSMEs resourceful enough to afford complex IT systems, nor were they in a position to retain highly talented IT professionals. It gave us an idea of the need for a simple and affordable "IT in a Box" product for MSMEs that is designed and built for small-scale usage and does not require highly talented IT professionals to operate it. It inspired us to design and build BLACKbox, which is available at one-third of the cost and DIY (Do It Yourself) IT in a Box product.
Jahnavi- How do you ensure that the data theft prevention is fully activated and not any of that is failing to complete its task?
Vishal- There are two ways to ensure data theft prevention—one by monitoring and another by controlling. Traditional DLP solutions focus on generating activity reports and making them available for continuous monitoring to detect any data theft attempt and trigger actions. It works well for a large enterprise with a dedicated Data Protection team. The same strategy does not work in an MSME setup. They do not have an IT team for monitoring and cannot afford such hi- tech data leakage prevention tools. They need to prevent Data Theft Prevention by controls. BLACKbox offers control policies which do not allow users to do certain things. For example, when the user visits websites offering data upload, the BLACKbox automatically isolates the confidential data. So the user cannot upload confidential data. Such controls simplify data theft prevention for MSMEs, and they can achieve data integrity in the best possible manner.
Jahnavi- What was the major goal behind this company? What made you think about having this company for the betterment of the country?
Vishal- We started this company to make IT more usable and relevant for MSMEs. Traditional IT systems left gaps in such a way that only large enterprises could use them. We found that MSMEs are the most significant contributor to the GDP of the Indian Economy and the highest employment creators. They compete on global standards and earn foreign exchange for India. They deserve simple and cost-effective IT systems that they can adopt and afford. They need IT systems to help them achieve global information security compliance standards. By making BLACKbox at one-third of the cost, we are helping thousands of MSMEs with a lion-share in shaping the world's fifth-largest Indian economy.
Jahnavi- Considering you have various events lined up, most of which are showcasing the demo shows, how do you think this tends to help your company?
Vishal- We do demo shows to create awareness in the MSME sector about alternative options to traditional IT systems, which are expensive, complex and require highly talented IT professionals. Our demo shows pose a potent alternative to MSMEs in terms of BLACKbox, an affordable and simple IT in a Box product.
Jahnavi- What are your opinions on the tech market at the year's end and future predictions for you as a company and for the market?
Vishal- We see the world moving towards cloud computing. Any skills related to the cloud will drive the tech markets. We have recently launched BLACKbox OneCloud, which is an IT infrastructure as a service product. It deploys our signature technology known as One Cloud – One Agent service. It allows MSMEs to subscribe to a single cloud service for all its needs like cloud storage, cloud backup, cloud security, VPN, virtualization, DLP, and data protection.
