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.