Michael Gazeley enjoys fighting the bad guys. He's one of the best. Network Box, the company he founded in 2000 with business partner Mark Webb-Johnson, has won multiple international awards for the quality of its data protection, and security products and services. It has 24-hour service centres in 12 locations worldwide, protects more than 100 banks in the United States and enjoys an excellent reputation among peers.
They also, as Gazeley notes with dry humour, 'make profit the old way'. This is one new technology business graduate and entrepreneur who is singularly unimpressed by the misleading claims of many of his peers. 'I don't understand the MBA models, the creation of fictional value, the cashing in and running away, and I couldn't sleep if I did,' he says.
A case-hardened veteran of computer networks and everything harmful that can affect them, there is only one phenomenon which continues to perplex Gazeley: that so few Hong Kong companies take the threat of viral infection seriously.
'We set up Network Box with SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises] in mind - 98 per cent of Hong Kong companies employ fewer than 75 people. And they are the ones who stand to lose most from data attack.'
The business model was a no-brainer: an affordable, reliable, zero capital investment solution to data security and protection for even the smallest company. And Gazeley is not coy about pricing.
'HK$800 per month to protect a company with 10 staff,' he says. 'HK$1,800 for 25, HK$2,800 for 50, HK$3,800 for 75. There's no hardware to buy and no commitment to a multiyear contract - they can sign up for three months if they want. It's less than the cost of the office cleaner.