With the industry’s aim of providing solutions and services to help ensure vessel compliance and business operability 365 days a year, along with keeping crew in touch with friends and family whilst at sea, GTMaritime intends to continue its global expansion especially with its latest office in Greece, focusing on clients and partners in southern Europe and the Middle East. Robban Assafina reveals the latest of GTMaritime in a special interview with Richard White, GTMaritime’s Global Commercial Director and Miltiadis Giannakoulias / Alex Zervos during Posidonia 2024.

Firstly, what can you tell us about GTMaritime’s technologies and solutions?
GTMaritime is a leading provider of secure maritime data communication software. Drawing on decades of experience in the shipping industry, the company provides a comprehensive portfolio of technology solutions designed specifically for vessels; covering email, file transfer, software deployment, and cyber security.

GTMaritime’s flagship product, GTMailPlus, is provided with 24/7 all year-round support. Moreover, all GTMaritime solutions, addresses the challenges of working at sea – securing, optimising, and delivering maritime email even in the most demanding conditions and regardless of the bandwidth available. Compatible with popular shore-based email solutions, the company features break-point restart and built-in security functions including end-to-end encrypted communications and protection against malware, viruses, spam, and phishing.

Also developed for maritime operations, GTReplicate is a data-transfer solution that facilitates the secure and uninterrupted movement of files and updates from shore to ship. The product integrates seamlessly with shore-based third-party software and enables bandwidth throttling to minimise impact on other business- and crew-communication requirements.

GTDeploy, meanwhile, offers a simple and secure way to ensure vessels are up to date and compliant. By allowing ship-owners to deploy software update patches, manage assets, and diagnose issues in remote locations, it helps to minimise the risks associated with out-of-date software. Furthermore, following a recent enhancement to the service, users now have unparalleled visibility into vessel assets and computer systems, with a wide range of new features for optimising performance, streamlining operations, and mitigating cyber-security risks.

While security is a core component of all GTMaritime products, the company also offers dedicated network protection solutions in high- and low-bandwidth versions. Powered by ESET, the low-bandwidth option, GTSentinel, provides end-point protection tailored to the shipping industry, with minimal impact on the vessel communication network. The high-bandwidth version, was developed in partnership with CrowdStrike and features end-point detection and response capabilities as well as next-generation AI-based antivirus protection.

All GTMaritime products, from GTMailPlus to the company’s cyber-security solutions, are provided with 24/7/365 support from GTMaritime’s dedicated support centres in the United Kingdom and Singapore.

What are the key factors of GTMaritime to enable maritime digitalisation through the provision of cyber secure data communications?
With the rapid development of maritime satellite connectivity, particularly of Low-Earth orbit (LEO) networks, vessels can handle far greater volumes of data than ever before, and the owners are understandably looking to take advantage to enhance efficiency, safety, and crew welfare.

However, as ships grow more connected to the outside world, they also become more vulnerable to cyber-security risks, facing the same digital threats as the shore-based offices they are increasingly coming to resemble.

In addition, issues arising from security breaches are more difficult to resolve on a remote vessel than on shore, while the impact of communications loss at sea is far more severe, with implications for safety and efficiency as well as potential consequences across the supply chain.

In response to these challenges, GTMaritime embeds advanced cyber-security features in all of its products. Without a secure foundation for data transfer and communications, ship owners cannot safely leverage the numerous opportunities offered by LEO and the evolving maritime connectivity landscape.

How was the first half of 2024, and what is next for GTMaritime?
In September last year, GTMaritime announced its 15,000th vessel installation. In the first half of 2024, the company has already passed the 17,000-vessel mark.

Earlier this year, in response to rapid growth in demand for its products and services, GTMaritime opened an office in the heart of Piraeus, Greece; focusing on clients and partners in southern Europe and the Middle East. To better serve local customers and support international growth, the company also added two new executives to its regional sales team.

Looking ahead, GTMaritime intends to continue its global expansion to provide a local presence across major shipping hubs, ensuring its fast-growing client base can access the same level of support regardless of where they are based or where their vessels are sailing.

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	Issue 91 of Robban Assafina (May/ June 2024)