This year, one.com and Halon celebrate a remarkable 10-year partnership. Both companies, rooted in the Nordics, share a common passion: making the world of email a safe and secure place for everyone. Join us as we sit down with the one.com team to reflect on a decade of collaboration, innovation, and growth.
To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about one.com?
Søren Visti Kristensen: As of April 2023, one.com is part of Group.one, a collective of multiple brands. one.com remains the largest brand within the group. Founded in Denmark, we now have offices all around the globe.
Chris Larsen: We’re a major hosting company with a strong focus on web and email services.
Moving on, we wanted to go back to the beginning of the one.com and Halon partnership. Choosing the right partner is crucial for any business, and it’s been 10 years, so we needed to rewind a bit! Why did one.com choose Halon?
Dan Malm: We needed to enhance our spam filtering capabilities both inbound and outbound. After struggling with integration issues with Cyren, we discovered Halon. Initially, we used it as an additional filter but quickly realized it could replace our entire SMTP stack. This transition allowed us to run everything on fewer servers, saving one.com a significant amount of money.
Søren Visti Kristensen: At one.com, we typically develop our own solutions and systems for our own data centers. Owning our systems from a source code perspective is crucial. After evaluating several email security platforms, we chose Halon due to its price, performance, ease-of-use, and multi-tenancy support. High integration with our software stack was a major plus.
Chris Larsen: We needed a solution that could help with our automation and scalability, and while we prefer open-source, there wasn’t a viable open-source solution then or now that fits our needs. Halon is the best choice available without having to build our own solution.
What were your initial thoughts when you first started working with Halon? What did you like? What was different from your previous experience?
Dan Malm: I joined the Systems Engineering department of one.com in 2016 and was immediately impressed with Halon’s flexibility. Unlike other SMTP solutions that require adaptation, Halon allows us to customize it to our needs. Its dynamic nature and scalability were a significant upgrade from what I had experienced with Postfix. Halon is more dynamic, and the scalability of it means that you can have larger clusters where all the machines work together, unlike Postfix, where it is just one machine that is completely independent from anything else you might have.
Søren Visti Kristensen: I joined in 2017 and came into a smooth-running system. The cooperation from Halon’s support engineers and joint workshops were impressive, showcasing a tight collaboration with our email team.
Chris Larsen: I was introduced to Halon by the email team and quickly understood its value. It’s a reliable service for our large-scale architecture, hosting over 2 million customers and their emails.
This is no news to anyone, but email security and management can be complex. What email challenges did you face before becoming our client, and how have things changed over the past decade?
Dan Malm: We struggled with compromised email accounts sending spam and phishing emails. Halon’s toolkit allowed us to improve our filtering and gain better insights into our email traffic. Today, the rise in compromised accounts makes robust security tools even more essential, and with Halon, we can filter more efficiently than ever.
Søren Visti Kristensen: Spam and email filtering have become increasingly important. The trajectory of spam growth demands strong operability and customer service. With Halon, we feel well-supported on this journey.
Chris Larsen: Compliance and standards are crucial. We try to follow the best practices and best recommendations of organizations like M3AAWG, which we, just like Halon, are members of. We appreciate that we don’t have to keep up with the standards on our own. Halon helps us stay up-to-date with best practices, allowing us to avoid the burden of maintaining standards ourselves, which would be the case with an open-source solution.
As an email infrastructure vendor, it is paramount to help clients by contributing to the company's growth and helping them stay competitive in their market. How has Halon helped one.com evolve and grow over the years?
Dan Malm: Halon made it easy to build new email-related products, like our new calendar system. Installing Halon machines to handle calendar invitations and replies was straightforward, unlike other solutions.
Søren Visti Kristensen: The direct communication between our engineers and Halon’s team has been paramount. Quick and transparent communication has supported our evolution over the years. The communication between us is the biggest asset in this collaboration from an operability point of view.
Chris Larsen: Halon’s scalable, high-availability solution aligns perfectly with our approach, allowing us to grow our business with minimal effort.
Can you recall a specific moment where our collaboration significantly impacted your business?
Dan Malm: Our recent M365 cloud-hosted exchange product is unique because of Halon. It allows us to manage email accounts on both exchange and our servers under the same domain. This flexibility wouldn’t be possible without Halon.
Søren Visti Kristensen: Halon operates quietly in the background, which is exactly what we need. It’s a rock-solid engine running in the background, and it’s also the kind of service you only hear about if it’s not working. Then you’ll hear about it quickly because if people’s emails aren’t working, our support teams will be inundated. Halon ensures we have smooth operations and excellent customer satisfaction.
What sets us apart from other email infrastructure companies, and why have you continued to work with us?
Dan Malm: The flexibility of Halon’s solution and the ease of communication and support are standout features. Another component that sets Halon apart is its domain-specific scripting language - the Halon Scripting Language (HSL)- which is easy to learn and incredibly useful. I think understanding and writing HSL is easier than understanding the whole concept of SMTP. A lot of the syntax is very similar to PHP, so if you know that, it is super easy to learn HSL, and if you know C++, then it will be a breeze.
Søren Visti Kristensen: We’ve compared other email infrastructure vendors, but Halon consistently proves to be the best choice in terms of cost, performance, and operability.
Clear and effective communication is key to a strong partnership. How would you describe the level of communication and support you've received from our team?
Dan Malm: Communication has always been great, but the Slack integration has been a game-changer. Quick responses and annual workshops are greatly appreciated.
Søren Visti Kristensen: The cooperation with Halon’s software engineers is a key factor in our loyalty. Building this relationship over the years is what makes our partnership unique.
Chris Larsen: Direct access to the technical team is invaluable. Annual visits for workshops are a highlight, allowing us to dive deep into technical discussions. Essentially it is a great way to ‘nerd out’ about stuff!
On a personal note, what has been the most enjoyable aspect of working with Halon?
Dan Malm: Meetings in Copenhagen and events like M3AAWG are highlights. The personal touch in communication makes us feel valued. We don’t feel like an anonymous customer or just a number!
Chris Larsen: I enjoy technical discussions with the Halon team. Their knowledge and expertise in email are impressive.
Halon CEO, Anders Långsved (left) with Dan Malm from one.com (right)
Finally, having worked together for a decade, what advice would you give to other companies considering working with us?
Dan Malm: Don’t hesitate to request new features. Halon’s team is responsive and often implements new functionalities.
Søren Visti Kristensen: Halon has been a great fit for our in-house systems, offering scalability and multi-tenancy features that meet our needs. I’m very happy with the cooperation we have had and have with Halon.
Chris Larsen: Halon’s professional and knowledgeable approach to email infrastructure makes them a top recommendation - and that’s why I would 100% recommend Halon as an email infrastructure vendor.
About the Interviewees
Dan Malm: Dan joined one.com in 2012 in the support department. He then transferred to their engineering department and has been working as a systems engineer in the Mail & Abuse team since 2016. As an engineer, Dan manages their SMTP / Halon infrastructure both for customers and multiple custom solutions for internal products. Dan also works with email abuse and manages many of their custom solutions for identifying and handling inbound and outbound email abuse.
Søren Visti Kristensen: Søren Visti Kristensen is CTO of group.one. As a product development executive he is holding an accredited MBA and MScEE with 20+ years of management experience and came onboard at one.com in 2017. Søren represents an international background from working in global high tech industries both covering executive leadership responsibilities with strong focus on design and delivery of products and digital services. He has previously served with and for Fortune100 companies developing wireless and mobile technologies, solutions for enterprise ecosystems and have had direct responsibility for engineering & architecture teams, solution sales & business development towards high tech players in ISP, telco, mobile and chipset industries on three continents. Søren has additionally led and managed geographical dispersed and cultural diversified teams in global organisations as well as in entrepreneurial startups.
Chris Larsen: Chris has been with one.com/group.one for three years, serving as the Head of Mail and Abuse. With an extensive background in systems engineering, development, and security, Chris is dedicated to the technical and engineering aspects of the role. Chris champions and implements SecDevOps practices within their Mass Hosting platforms. In addition to managing staff, Chris ensures operational stability and scalability, and oversees the execution of major projects and technology implementations.