Cloud email service specialist Mimecast will add new capabilities to the existing functionality of its cloud services platform and this year’s focus is on expanding its presence in terms of existing clients and new clients, says Mimecast MD Brandon Bekker.

The company launched its large-file sending functionality that enables users to send files up to 2 GB in size using email. Attachments are automatically encrypted and secured with custom expiration dates and archived according to retention policies.

“Our strategy is to enrich our customers’ experiences by extending the capabilities of the platform and improving user productivity through these enhancements. This will lead to organic growth with existing customers and to gaining new customers.”

Mimecast expects its growth will be bolstered by the Protection of Personal Information (Popi) Act No 4 of 2013, which will require companies to secure and protect any personal data that they hold. Mimecast’s resilient and scalable platform is tamperproof – every email, attachment, instant- messaging conversation and file has a full chain of custody and traceable history, complying fully with the legislation.

The company also securely stores documents according to company policy and in compliance with legislation, as well as enforcing data leak-prevention policies on all data.

“There are also opportunities for us to harvest structured and unstructured data to evolve the platform’s electronic discovery of valuable information as a step towards our vision of being an information bank for customers,” highlights Bekker.

The Mimecast subscription-based service can also be unbundled to enable customers to select only the portions of the platform’s functionality they need to address their needs, which enable companies to reduce their costs further, he adds.

“This aspect of user control is a focus for us. We are investigating the possibility of providing specific, bespoke services and functionality for separate industries and even for separate companies, as well as expanding the control of individual users while enforcing company policies.”

The Mimecast system operates as a single, seamless platform through which users access all of the associated services and functionality. This empowers end-users to search for documents rapidly using any keywords, file types, file names, date ranges, categories or correspondents.

The system reduces the challenge of electronic security that many companies face and the system enables the central, easy admini- stration of company rules and policies, concludes Bekker.