MK Net.Work

Volume Optimization, Acceleration and Cost Reduction Software Solutions
for Microsoft, IBM and other Messaging and Collaboration Platforms

FAQ

Which platforms do your optimization solutions cover?

Email Clients:
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • IBM Notes
  • Web mails
Solutions:
  • ZipMail for Microsoft Outlook
  • ZipMail for IBM Notes
  • Z-OptimiZr for Web Browsers
Purpose of these solutions:
  • Optimization (i.e. size reduction) of attached files (automatic, at the time the files are selected to be attached).
  • Optimization of pasted images (automatic, at the time the images are pasted into emails).
  • One-click PDF conversion of files to be attached (at the time the files are selected to be attached).
  • One-click Encryption of files to be attached (at the time the files are selected to be attached).
Web Browsers:
  • Internet Explorer
  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla FireFox
  • Microsoft Edge
Solutions:
  • Z-OptimiZr for Web Browers - Internet Eplorer Edition
  • Z-OptimiZr for Web Browers - Chrome Edition
  • Z-OptimiZr for Web Browers - Firefox Edition
  • Z-OptimiZr for Web Browers - Edge Edition
Purpose of these solutions:
  • Optimization (i.e. size reduction) of files selected to be uploaded (automatic, at the time the files are selected).
  • One-click PDF conversion of files selected to be uploaded (at the time the files are selected).
  • One-click Encryption of files selected to be uploaded (at the time the files are selected).
Examples of usage:
  • Optimization of Microsoft OWA attached files.
  • Optimization of IBM iNotes and Verse attached files.
  • Optimization of files uploaded to Microsoft SharePoint via a browser.
  • Optimization of files uploaded to Microsoft OneDrive via a browser.
  • Optimization of files uploaded to IBM Connections via a browser.
  • Optimization of files uploaded to IBM Box via a browser.
  • ...
Email Servers:
  • Microsoft Exchange
  • IBM Domino
Solutions:
  • ZipMail Real-Time for Microsoft Exchange
  • ZipMail for Microsoft Exchange Store
  • ZipMail Real-Time for IBM Domino
  • ZipMail for IBM Domino Databases
Purpose of these solutions:
  • Optimization of the files attached to the email routed by the mail servers ("Real-Time" versions).
  • Optimization of the files already stored in the mail server databases ("Store" or "Databases" versions).
SharePoint Servers:
Solutions:
  • Z-OptimiZr Real Time for SharePoint
  • Z-OptimiZr for SharePoint Databases
Purpose of these solutions:
  • Optimization of the files uploaded to SharePoint servers at the time they are received on the SharePoint Servers ("Real-Time" version).
  • Optimization of the files already stored in the SharePoint server libraries, in batch mode ("Databases" version).
Cloud Storage Services - NAS - File servers:
  • OneDrive
  • Google Drive
  • IBM Box
  • DropBox
  • Other Cloud Storage Services
  • WebDAV Folders
  • NAS
  • File Servers
  • FTP Servers
Solutions:
  • Z-OptimiZr for Cloud Storage (Client solution)
  • Z-OptimiZr for Server Storage (Server solution)
Purpose of these solutions:
  • Optimization of the files uploaded to these platforms via Windows Explorer. (Z-OptimiZr for Cloud Storage).
  • PDF Conversion of the files uploaded to these platforms via Windows Explorer. (Z-OptimiZr for Cloud Storage).
  • Optimization, in batch mode, of the files already stored on these platforms. (Z-OptimiZr for Server Storage).
  • PDF Conversion, in batch mode, of the files uploaded to these platforms via Windows Explorer. (Z-OptimiZr for Server Storage).
Skype for Business:
Solutions:
  • Z-OptimiZr for Skype
Purpose of this solution:
  • Optimization of the files sent via Skype, (automatic, at the files are selected to be sent).
  • PDF Conversion of the files sent via Skype, (in one click, at the time the files are selected to be sent).
  • Encryption of the files sent via Skype, (in one click, at the time the files are selected to be sent).

What do you mean by “Optimization”?

If you analyze what is the cause of most of email and collaboration platform issues…
Most often, it is the amount of data to handle exceeding the capacity of the platform.
This results in:
  • Performance issues
  • Unsatisfied and complaining users
  • Recurring need to upgrade some components of your IT infrastructure like storage devices, email or collaboration servers, network links to the internet, routers etc. in order to adapt to the growing traffic. This generates costs (acquisition, installation, maintenance).
  • Increased complexity and operating costs: as your email and collaboration platforms become bigger and bigger, they also require more sophisticated and more powerful infrastructure components. Costs of acquisition of these components, as well as their costs of installation and maintenance, are most often proportional to their level of sophistication.
  • Less agile and more difficult to maintain email and collaboration platforms
Now if you look at what your email and collaboration traffic (and thus storage) is made of, you will find that files make most probably the main part of it, up to 90% or even more.
This is the reason why our optimization solutions are focused on making all files exchanged and store in your email and collaboration platforms significantly smaller.
Imagine for one second your Microsoft Exchange or SharePoint organization with up to 50% less volume to handle!
This is the promise of our optimization solutions.

What are the optimization features included in your software?

Native Optimization for Microsoft Office XML files (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX etc. files)
Reduction of the size of all MS Office XML files (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX etc.).
The optimized XML files remain in their native format; for instance, an optimized DOCX file is still a fully standard DOCX file that can be opened directly by MS Word as well as by any other application able to open DOCX files.
Average volume reduction ratio: 50%.
Native Optimization for Open Office XML files (ODT, ODP and ODS files).
Reduction of the size of Open Office XML files (ODT, ODS, and ODP).
The optimized XML files remain in their native format; for instance, an optimized ODT file is still a fully standard ODT file that can be opened directly by Open Office as well as by any other application able to open ODT files.
Average volume reduction ratio: 50%.
More information about Native XML File Optimization. Yes, it also works with Open Office XML files!
Native Optimization for "old" Microsoft Office files (DOC, PPT and XLS files)
Reduction of the size of all "old;" MS Office files (DOC, PPT and XLS).
The optimized MS Office files remain in their native format; for instance, an optimized DOC file is still a fully standard DOC file that can be opened directly by MS Word as well as by any other application able to open DOC files.
Average volume reduction ratio: 50%.
Native Optimization for Image Files (JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, EMF, WMF, TIF and TIFF files)
Reduction of the size of image files (JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, EMF, WMF, TIF and TIFF files).
The optimized image files remain image files; for instance, an optimized JPG file is still a fully standard JPG file that can be opened directly by any application able to open JPG files.
With file types other than JPG, the optimization can result in a conversion of the file type to another file type. For instance the optimization of a BMP file may result in a JPG or in a PNG file.
Average volume reduction ratio: 50%.
Optional image optimization policies can be configured, for instance to resize the largest images to maximum specific dimensions, for example HD - 1920 x 1080 pixels. With such a policy in place, images larger than HD will be resized to match the HD frame. This greatly improves the volume reduction ratios obtained with the largest image and picture files that can easily reach 80% to 90%. (Size in KB of the optimized picture files being only between 10% and 20% of the original file size). And since large images (those with dimensions in pixels exceeding the dimensions of the user display, for instance HD) are automatically re-scaled by the Windows Viewer to the display dimensions at the time the users open them, it makes no difference for the users in terms of image rendering to serve them image files that have been resized to HD dimensions.
Zip Compression (for files than are not candidates for native optimization)
Zip Compression can be applied to the files that cannot be natively optimized, i.e. files other than MS Office files, MS Open Office files and image files.
Contrary to Native Optimization, Zip compression requires Zip decompression on the recipient / consumer side.
Our client software like ZipMail for MS Outlook, ZipMail for IBM Notes and Z-OptimiZr for Web Browsers provide transparent Zip decompression.
Average volume reduction ratio: 50%.
Volume Avoidance Policies
Our client software like ZipMail for MS Outlook, ZipMail for IBM Notes and Z-OptimiZr for Web Browsers can be configured to apply volume restriction policies.
You can, for instance, limit the maximum size of files that can be attached or uploaded. Users can be warned (soft policy) or prevented (hard policy) to attach or upload files exceeding the specified size limit. The size of the files can be measured before and/or after optimization.
It is also possible to prevent the attachment and upload of some given file types in order to prevent users to attach or upload files known to be very large like mp3, mp4 and other music and video files for instance. This policy can also be used to prevent the attachment and upload of files you do not want to support for security reasons like EXE and BAT files for instance.

Do you provide other features non directly related to the optimization and compression topics?

PDF Conversion
Our client software like ZipMail for MS Outlook, ZipMail for IBM Notes, Z-OptimiZr for Web Browsers and Z-OptimiZr for Cloud Storage as well as some of our server software like ZipMail Real-Time for Microsoft Exchange and ZipMail Real-Time for IBM Domino include a PDF conversion feature.
The resulting PDF files size is optimized and their rendering quality is excellent, even when printed.
Encryption
Our client software like ZipMail for MS Outlook, ZipMail for IBM Notes, Z-OptimiZr for Web Browsers provide a password-based encryption feature for the files being attached or uploaded.
In order to encrypt their files, users only have to click a check box at the time they attach or upload their files. Then they provide the password to be used to lock the files. The resulting encrypted files are password protected + encrypted standard Zip files.
Our client software provide transparent decryption and decompression of these secured files. (The password used to secure them needs to be provided). These secured files can also be opened by any other Zip utility as well as by Windows Explorer. (the password used to secure them needs to be provided).
There is also the option to produce Zip-AES secured files (up to AES 256) instead of Standard secured Zip files.
Extensibility
The implementation of our software takes the need for future extensions into consideration.
This means that we can very easily add any feature having to process files; would they be files being attached in Microsoft Outlook or OWA or IBM Notes, iNotes or Verse, uploaded using a web browser, drag and dropped to MS OneDrive, IBM Box, Google Drive or Dropbox, routed by an MS Exchange or IBM Domino server, received by a SharePoint server or stored in MS Exchange, SharePoint or IBM Domino databases.
Would you have any needs in this matter, please ask us!

What type of results and benefits we can expect with your optimization solutions?

Technical Results
Examples of technical benefits delivered by our optimization solutions:
  • Up to 50% reduction of your email and collaboration network traffic
  • Up to 50% reduction of the existing amount of data stored on your email and collaboration servers
  • Up to 50% reduction of your network bandwidth needs for email and collaboration business
  • Up to 50% reduction of the load (CPU, disk IOs, time) of your email and collaboration servers when processing files. (i.e. serving files, storing and retrieving files to and from email and collaboration server databases, replicating files on cluster nodes, indexing files, archiving files, backing up and restoring files, etc.
  • Time taken by each single transaction on a file reduced on average by up to 50% (file upload, download, insertion and extraction into and from email and collaboration server databases, replication on cluster nodes, indexing, archiving, backup and restore).
Business Benefits
Examples of business benefits delivered by our optimization solutions:
  • Performance Improvements Significant performance improvements, since every single transaction processing a file (upload, routing, download, insertion into and extraction from the email and collaboration server stores etc.) is two times faster with a file of a given size reduced by 50% by our solutions.
  • Cost reductions Reduction of the costs of operating your email and collaboration platforms + opportunities to delay IT infrastructure investments.
  • Opportunity to host more users on your existing infrastructures. Making a better and more productive use of your existing email and collaboration platforms and infrastructure.
  • User Satisfaction and productivity Better user satisfaction index thanks to faster email and collaboration applications. Better user acceptance of new collaborative applications. Better user productivity. If users have quotas, they can do more within the same quotas.
  • Better agility, flexibility and reactivity More agile and easy to maintain email and collaboration platforms. More space and resources available to host new applications and their data, as well as additional users.
  • Satisfaction of avoiding a big waste of IT infrastructure resources and of user time.

How can we know about the results your optimization solutions would deliver in our own environment?

Very easily!
Simply download free evaluation versions of our solutions and test them in your own environment, with your own files.
Each of our solutions includes the production of statistical data and detailed log files as well as an application to display the optimization statistics in real time!
Ask for our guidance and assistance to setup a pilot of our solutions.
We provide pre-sales assistance for free.

How does your optimization software compare against network compression appliances?

Our optimization solutions are complementary and additional to network compression appliances.
The savings delivered by our optimization solutions on network bandwidth are additional to the savings delivered by network compression appliances.
The reason is that with most of the files (MS Office files, image and picture files) our software perform native optimization while network compression appliances perform usual Zip-like compression. Zip-like compression delivers no volume reduction on Microsoft Office XML files and on image and picture files like JPG files. The reason is that these files are already compressed.
If you don't have a network analyzer handy, you can still easily check this by doing the quick following test:
Create a folder on your Windows Desktop, configure it to have Windows compressing its content (right-click - "Properties" on this folder, in the "General" tab, "Attributes" area, click "Advanced..." then select "Compress content to save disk space").
Now, copy some MS Office XML files like DOCX, PPTX or XLSX files and some JPG files inside this folder. Then do a right-click - "Properties" on each copied file and have a look in the "General" tab at the "Size" and "Size on disk" fields. (Size on disk is the "compressed" size of the file).
You will see that these numbers are identical or very close with each of your XML and JPG files.
This means that the Windows folder compression is inefficient on these files.
Now, optimize these files natively by using one of our optimization software and store them in another compressed folder.
If you do a right-click - "Properties" on each file and have a look in the "General" tab at the "Size" and "Size on disk" fields, you will see that the size of each of these natively optimized files (both "Size" and "Size on disk") is smaller than the size of the corresponding non-optimized file stored in the other compressed folder.
This means that our native optimization software is able to deliver volume reduction results on these files even when stored in a Windows compressed folder.
There is a complete analogy between the compression used by network compression appliances and the compression used by Windows for the Windows compressed folder. Both are Zip-like compression, not able to deliver results on Microsoft Office files and image files.
If you want to do this test without downloading and installing an evaluation version of our software, you can download MS Office XML files and JPG optimized by our software and their non-optimized versions from these links:
Optimized and non-optimized MS Office XML file samples
Optimized and non-optimized image file samples
Also, contrary to our optimization software, network compression appliances only deliver savings on network bandwidth, not on storage and server processing time and IO.
Network compression appliances are additional pieces of hardware to install and maintain. Our optimization solutions are software solutions, not requiring any additional hardware.

How does your optimization software compare against low level hard drive compression?

Our optimization solutions are complementary and additional to low level hard drive compression.
The storage savings delivered by our optimization solutions are additional to the savings delivered by low level hard drive compression.
The reason is that with most of the files (MS Office files, image and picture files) our software perform native optimization while hard drive compression is usual Zip-like compression. Zip-like compression delivers no volume reduction on Microsoft Office XML files and on image and picture files like JPG files. The reason is that these files are already compressed.
You can still easily check this by doing the quick following test:
Create a folder on your Windows Desktop, configure it to have Windows compressing its content (right-click - "Properties" on this folder, in the "General" tab, "Attributes" area, click "Advanced..." then select "Compress content to save disk space").
Now, copy some MS Office XML files like DOCX, PPTX or XLSX files and some JPG files inside this folder.
Then do a right-click - "Properties" on each copied file and have a look in the "General" tab at the "Size" and "Size on disk" fields. (Size on disk is the "compressed" size of the file).
You will see that these numbers are identical or very close with each of your XML and JPG files. This means that the Windows folder compression is inefficient on these files.
Now, optimize these files natively by using one of our optimization software and store them in another compressed folder. If you do a right-click - "Properties" on each file and have a look in the "General" tab at the "Size" and "Size on disk" fields, you will see that the size of each of these natively optimized files (both "Size" and "Size on disk") is smaller than the size of the corresponding non-optimized file stored in the other compressed folder.
This means that our native optimization software is able to deliver volume reduction results on these files even when stored in a Windows compressed folder.
If you want to do this test without downloading and installing an evaluation version of our software, you can download MS Office XML files and JPG optimized by our software and their non-optimized versions from these links:
Optimized and non-optimized MS Office XML file samples
Optimized and non-optimized image file samples
Also, contrary to our optimization software, low level hard drive compression only delivers savings on hard drives, not on network bandwidth and it also consumes CPU each time a file is read since it needs to decompress it to serve it.

How does your optimization solutions compare against buying additional storage?

Contrary to extra disk space, our optimization solutions are never consumed.
Let's take for instance our client solutions like ZipMail for Microsoft Outlook, ZipMail for IBM iNotes, Z-OptimiZr for Web Browsers or Z-OptimiZr for Cloud Storage. These solutions reduce, by a given percentage, the volumes generated, transited, processed, stored, indexed, clustered, backed-up and archived in your email and collaboration platforms.
This is true for the first budget year after installation, but it also remains true for the next years. For these next years, our optimization solutions will deliver the same overall volume reduction ratios. The good point here is that, since you have licensed our software on year 1, there is no recurring license costs required to get your yearly ROI again and again for the years n+1 and next.
Even better, in case your email and collaboration platform volumes grow in time (as it is most often the case), our optimization software will deliver higher levels of volume savings year after year. As you can see, the ROI delivered by our solutions is not only recurrent (each year) but it also, most often, increases in time (in terms of number of terabytes of storage and network bandwidth saved per year).
Extending your email and collaboration server storage capacity is a solution of a very different nature, because once this additional storage space consumed, you need additional storage extensions again. Plus, increasing your storage capacity generates additional and recurring costs due to the fact you have more hardware to maintain and more terabytes to keep online, backup and archive.
Our optimization solutions are never consumed. They continue to deliver their massive (and most often growing) ROI year after year. For these reasons, we like to say that their ROI is infinite.

Aside from their volume reduction power, what are the strengths of your optimization solutions?

Extremely easy to understand, to install and to maintain
Our optimization solutions, although very powerful in what they do and in the way they interact with email and collaboration platforms, are not rocket science. It is very easy to understand what they do: "Making files smaller".
for our client-side solutions, installation takes few seconds, and no more than a few minutes for the more "complex" of our server side solutions.
The simplicity of our solutions make them extremely easy to configure and to maintain.
Fully transparent for all users including the recipients and consumers of the optimized files not having any of our software installed.
Our solutions are fully transparent to the users, including for the recipients and the consumers of the optimized files who do not need our software to access the optimized files.
Fully automatic, no user action or education required
One-click is one click too many! Our optimization solutions require zero user action and thus no user education. They are fully automatic and transparent.
Start delivering results as soon as installed
Being fully automatic and transparent and requiring no specific user action or education, our optimization solutions start delivering their volume reduction benefits as soon as they are installed.
No "hidden costs"
Our optimization solutions have no "hidden costs". There are no negative side effects resulting of making all files transiting and being stored in your email and collaboration platforms smaller, only positive ones!
Very mature software - MK Net.Work started doing business in 1996. Large number of email and collaboration platforms covered.
Our software offering is very mature. We never stopped innovating since 1996! Version 14 of our ZipMail and Z-OptimiZr product lines remain unchallenged both in terms of optimization features and in terms of number of email and collaboration platforms covered (Microsoft, IBM, Google...).
Trusted by a very large customer base
Our optimization solutions have been adopted by a very large customer base. We have customers of all sizes and in all economic sectors. Our largest customers have over 250,000 copies of our client software running every day, worldvide. More about our customers

Unclassified Questions and Answers:

Where does the Z-OptimiZr name come from? What does it mean?
Finding a product name for our next generation optimization software suite was challenging.
Of course, it had to mean something in relation with optimization, and at the same time to be unique enough to be easily found by Google and other search engines.
But the name of our new optimization product line would also have to achieve the following goals:
  • To differentiate our new optimization product line from our ZipMail legacy product line, while at the same time keeping a relation with it; ZipMail being on the market since 1996 (yes, the first versions of ZipMail were for Microsoft Mail, the ancestor of Microsoft Outlook, and Lotus Notes 4.5, the ancestor of IBM Notes), and with an active user base of several million ZipMail users all around the globe, we wanted to keep capitalizing on the fantastic success of ZipMail.
  • Since our new optimization software product line was covering not only email platforms but also most of the today's collaboration platforms like SharePoint, IBM Connections, Cloud storage services like OneDrive, IBM Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Instant messaging like Skype for Business, Web Browser applications etc., we had to get rid of the "Mail" keyword for our new optimization software name.
  • Also, the "Zip" keyword was not well fitted anymore to describe the complete set of optimization features made available in our software. The old versions of ZipMail were compressing the email attached files, hence the ZipMail name. The modern versions of ZipMail as well as our new optimization software now provide Native optimization for all MS Office documents and also native optimization for all image and picture files (as well as for images copied and pasted into emails). All these files are not Zip-compressed anymore. They remain in their original format after having been optimized by our software.
    Thus the "Zip" keyword was by far too restrictive and had to be replaced by something expressing a broader coverage in terms of volume reduction features.
  • Finally, we also wished to express that this next-generation optimization software represented somehow the state of the art in terms of modern software optimization. A real innovation, something virtually unsurpassable in the current state of the knowledge in the matter. (This is marketing and this is what we wanted the name of our software to express. Even if we think we are close to this, only our customers can tell how the marketing talk translates in the real world).
These were the elements of the puzzle we had to assemble to find a name for our new optimization software suite.
Obviously, the best words to express the core concept of our software were:
  • "Optimization"
  • "Optimize"
  • "Optimizer"
We found that a good way to keep a subtle link with ZipMail was to reuse the "Z" letter.
At the same time the "Z" letter, being the last letter of the alphabet could express the notion of "unsurpassable", the fact that it is not possible to go further in terms of optimization.
At last, and this is kind of funny, the "Z" was also a way to do a wink to the French origins of our company.
How?
As you know, Frenchies are known to have a very bad English accent; among other things, they pronounce "The" as "Z".
Thus when they say "The Optimizer" they pronounce "Z Optimizer".
We liked this one very much!
Additionally, "The Optimizer" can be understood as "The One", "The Ultimate Optimizer".
This was also matching very well with the idea we intended to push, that our optimization software represents the state of the art in terms of optimization techniques. Plus, using "Z" instead of "The" was expressing this idea in a way that was funny and not too pretentious.
We so decided to keep "Z" and "Optimizer" That were finally merged and formatted to the unique and trendy "Z-OptimiZr" that became the official name of our new optimization software product line.
We finally decided to keep the "ZipMail" name for our software products focused on email optimization only.
Despite the fact that ZipMail is probably not the ideal name to describe and express the value of the native optimization features provided in the modern versions of ZipMail, our customers and us decided that we all love ZipMail too much to take the decision to rename it.
We'll thus celebrate the ZipMail 21st birthday in next October!
Let's wish Z-OptimiZr the same longevity and success as ZipMail!
Z-OptimiZr, ZOptimiZr, Z-OptimiZer, ZOptimiZer, Z OptimiZr, Z OptimiZer, #ZOptimiZr?
Which is the correct spelling for Z-OptimiZr?
Z-OptimiZr is the official name of our optimization software product line. So, if you want to google us, preferably use this spelling.
This said, if you google ZOptimiZr, Z-OptimiZer, ZOptimiZer, Z OptimiZr, Z OptimiZer or even #ZOptimiZr you may also find Z-OptimiZr (thanks to this paragraph maybe).
We also own the z-optimizr.com and zoptimizr.com domain names.
If you want to search Z-OptimiZr on Twitter, you can use the #ZOptimiZr hashtag since dashes are not well supported in Twitter hashtags.
Act Now!

Optimization-related questions?

Questions about:
  • Our optimization solutions?
  • SharePoint performance problems?
  • Email or IM volume or performance issues?
  • Migrating to the cloud and needing to anticipate network bandwidth issues?
  • Looking for an optimization solution you did not find on our web site?

Fully functional evaluation versions

Start evaluating our client and server optimization solutions for:
  • Microsoft Outlook, OWA, Exchange, Lync / Skype for Business, SharePoint and OneDrive
  • IBM Notes, iNotes, Domino, Connections, Verse and IBM Box
  • Google Gmail and other web mails, Google Drive, DropBox

Curious to have a look at Microsoft Office XML files natively optimized by our solutions?

Before evaluating our optimization solutions, you’d like to look at some Microsoft Office XML file samples, before and after optimization, check the volume reduction ratios, display original and optimized DOCX, PPTX and XLSX files side by side at screen or even print them.

Curious to have a look at image files natively optimized by our solutions?

Before evaluating our optimization solutions, you’d like to look at some image file samples, before and after optimization, check the volume reduction ratios, display original and optimized pictures side by side at screen or even print them.

Would you like to know more about our customers?

You wonder if our optimization solutions are backed by a solid customer base?
 
The answer is Yes!

 

Let's stay in touch!

Would you be one of our customers or just starting an evaluation of our optimization solutions, or just thinking about using them for future projects, we can stay in touch through our newsletters.

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