Anti-Spam Product Not Working? What more companies are switching to and why

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1 Anti-Spam Product Not Working? What more companies are switching to and why What more companies are switching to and why MORE CUSTOMERS SWITCHING FROM APPLIANCES, SOFTWARE AND LIMITED SERVICES As spam and virus attacks on systems continue to evolve and escalate (more than 80 percent of current traffic is spam or malicious code), many companies are experiencing frustration with older anti-spam technologies. That s because traditional message content filtering is no longer sufficient to catch and prevent new junk techniques or directory harvest attacks. These rapidly evolving threats have begun to strain legacy anti-spam products and stretch the resources of overburdened IT staff as they struggle to update and maintain anti-spam software and appliances. Over the past few years, four basic types of anti-spam and security approaches have developed. They are: desktop software, server software, gateway appliances, and managed services. Desktop software is limited to companies with very few users because installing and updating such software is an administrative nightmare for larger organizations. Server software, at one time the most popular approach, is losing ground to managed services and appliances. The Radicati Group estimates that by 2009, the security managed service market would grow by more than 100 percent, while the server software market would grow by less than 25 percent. (1) The reasons for the switch away from software solutions are multiple: Newly evolving threats means traditional content filtering is no longer enough Overburdened IT staffs can t easily install, maintain, and keep software and appliances updated fast enough Fighting threats is not a core IT competency Companies are moving from point anti-spam products to more complete message management solutions. As analyst Michael Osterman has emphasized, Companies realize that stopping threats does nothing for the bottom line. Using a managed service for security conserves IT resources and staff that can be better utilized elsewhere. As a leading managed service for more than 8 million users, Postini s experience bears out the current trend away from software and towards an outsourced service. (2) Providing anti-spam, anti-virus and security services to more than 35,000 customers worldwide, Postini has noted that more than 90 percent of its current customers have switched to Postini from anti-spam software, appliances and even other antispam services. A survey of Postini customers helps to explain why they switched. ACCURACY AND EFFECTIVENESS TOP THE LIST FOR SWITCHING By far, most customers say they switched to Postini because it stops spam more effectively with fewer false positives. A recent test published by Network World Fusion confirms Postini s effectiveness. For the second year in a row it was selected as the managed service solution of choice for spam protection. Published in December 2004, the product review compared anti-spam software products, managed services, and appliances from 36 different vendors to determine which solutions were most effective at stopping spam and keeping legitimate flowing. 1

2 Overall, we are VERY satisfied with what Postini has done for us. We explored the use of many technologies and had utilized three different products prior to Postini. We are glad we switched. (3) Postini has to be the best service for catching spam and virus laden s we have ever used - and we tried several. Of all the products tested, Postini s Perimeter Manager service offered the best balance between spam capture and false positives, with a 97 percent spam catch rate and only six false positives in more than 10,000 s tested. Postini s spam sensitivity score which combines accuracy and false positives into a single measure of total effectiveness, was by far the best in the test. (4) Postini s unmatched effectiveness stems from several key differences from server software or gateway appliances. As a managed service, spam and newly evolving threats are effectively dealt with before they have a chance to impact an system. That s because Postini sits between the Internet and the customer s server analyzing and filtering all messages before they can reach the gateway. Postini s patented pass-through technology processes in real-time, through a highly secure system architecture that operates with no detectable latency, no data loss, and no security compromises. Legitimate is instantly forwarded to an server and suspicious is either blocked and discarded or quarantined to a web-accessible storage area for review by authorized employees. (See Figure 1) STOPS THREATS DYNAMICALLY WITH MULTIPLE LAYER PROTECTION Postini identifies and blocks malicious or suspect behavior before it can ever reach the customer s gateway using multiple anti-virus filtering and instant updates that deliver zero hour virus protection. MINIMIZES FALSE POSITIVES WITH ADVANCED INDUSTRY HEURISTICS Postini filters messages to eliminate viruses and spam using thousands of rules and advanced legal and financial industry heuristics that are constantly updated by Postini to detect new spam and virus POSTINI PERIMETER MANAGER - ENTERPRISE EDITION Sender Behavior Analysis Content Analysis Intelligent Message Routing Corporate Mail Servers 2.32 Inbound and Outbound & IM BLOCK QUARANTINE SPOOL Figure 1: Postini Perimeter Manager patented technology blocks attacks at the connection point with its exclusive Sender Behavior Analysis. s are then screened through Content Analysis to eliminate spam and quarantine questionable messages. 2

3 I look back at the number of viruses caught by the Postini service and I wonder how we ever lived without it. Now I sleep well at night knowing that s just one less thing I have to worry about. When you top that off with the increased productivity and decreased liability from spam filtering, Postini is an IT miracle. Love Postini! There s basically zero administration and my spam problems have gone away. We tried Spambayes (client) and Spam Assassin (server) products before Postini. Spambayes was a burden on our helpdesk while Spam Assassin s false positive rate was way too high. types. These new rules and heuristics are always immediately available to customers without the need for IT staff to download or install any software or appliance updates. FIGHTS THREATS FROM A 24X7 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Because of its vast experience observing hundreds of millions of messages every day, Postini is able to analyze traffic patterns and connection behaviors from a global perspective. Thus, customers gain the advantage of a vast pool of spam and virus intelligence that each business individually could never hope to attain, even by subscribing to software or appliance updates. LOWER OVERHEAD COSTS AND REDUCED ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN As a managed service, Postini has the advantages of reduced overhead and lower administrative costs. Because Postini sits between the Internet and the customer s gateway, threats are preemptively stopped before they can impact the customer s network. Thus, customers save on bandwidth, storage and processing since spam, viruses, phishing and other attacks are never allowed inside the network. In addition, there is no installation or distribution of software or appliances, and no worries about conducting frequent updates or version control issues. A recent Frost &Sullivan research report, for example, shows that Postini s managed service proves to be much more cost effective than typical anti-spam software or appliance products. According to the report, Frost &Sullivan analyzed the costs associated with other anti-spam and security solutions, and built total cost of ownership (TCO) models to compare the true costs of the solutions over their lifetime of use. Variables such as purchase price, platform installation, network integration, configuration, and monitoring were analyzed to calculate the TCO for security solutions in both large and small environments. (5) The results of the report showed that Postini cost 10 percent less than an appliance solution for a 300-user company and cost percent less than a software solution for a large enterprise environment with 10,000 users. The report concluded that, The results prove that by leveraging a services model, customers are not only able to save money on the total cost of ownership of an security solution, but are able to increase security and scale their deployments more linearly than by purchasing software or appliance solutions that are installed at the customer location. EASE OF USE AND CONFIGURATION BY ADMINISTRATORS As a managed service solution, Postini can typically be activated in just a few minutes with a simple modification of the customer s DNS MX record. Once activated, all to the customer flow through Postini s data centers in North America and in Europe where threats are effectively blocked. Once Postini is activated, administrators can configure management options in minutes. Postini provides a convenient web interface that lets administrators select pre-configured settings most appropriate to policies, or to customize settings where desired. Other benefits Postini provides compared to other anti-spam products and services include: Convenient web console for easy configuration, management supervision and reporting Administrators can direct messages to more than one server Customers never have to pay for secondary addresses management reports are available instantly FLEXIBILITY OF END USER CONTROLS Postini offers a flexible policy framework that goes beyond the one size fits all restrictions of other 3

4 Postini is the best IT investment we ve made in a while! It saves our networking staff a considerable amount of time every day. services to allow inbound and outbound filtering and policy enforcement that suits the needs of different domains, user groups and even individual users. End users have the flexibility to examine their own quarantined messages via online message center, and can maintain their own white/black lists, all within parameters set by administrators. Other services may offer user quarantines but unlike Postini, these quarantines are often difficult to set up and maintain. SUPERIOR SERVICE AND SUPPORT Postini provides its customers with activation assistance and around the clock telephone and online support. In many cases, customers find the activation and configuration process so easy, that little or no support is necessary. With customer satisfaction ratings that exceed industry standards, Postini exhibits a remarkable 98 percent renewal rate among current customers. In addition, Postini assures percent uptime for its service through multiple data centers in around the world. MORE THAN JUST ANTI-SPAM PROTECTION To help solve the messaging challenges of today, Postini goes far beyond simply offering anti-spam protection. That s because Postini provides a single integrated message management solution that combines and instant messaging (IM) protection, archiving, encryption and message continuity all managed through a single webbased administrative interface. Postini is unique in that its managed service model utilizes a single, common policy framework making it easier and much more efficient to manage multiple message functions and enforce policies. Thus, Postini provides a comprehensive suite of services that work together from a single managed service platform, enabling businesses to instantly add services in any combination and on any scale to fit their needs. As a result, Postini enables IT departments to deliver the business benefits of and IM as communications tools without the associated costs, risks and complexities of in-house software or appliance products. Given the rapid evolution of messaging threats and increasing demands of legal requirements and regulatory compliance, Postini goes beyond simply eliminating spam to deliver a unique integrated message management solution that includes: POSTINI INTEGRATED MESSAGE MANAGEMENT SECURITY COMPLIANCE AVAILABILITY VISIBILITY Spam & virus protection, encryption, anti-phishing, web content filtering, and real-time attack blocking at connection for & IM. & IM content policy enforcement, archiving & discovery, audit reports, and encryption. continuity, archiving, load balancing, intelligent routing, failover, disaster recovery, and data center redundancy. Centralized web management, realtime monitoring & alerts, usage reports, and access control. Figure 2: Postini Integrated Message Management (IMM) offers a comprehensive, flexible, trusted managed service that protects your messages without burdening your IT infrastructure. Postini delivers comprehensive security for IM and , enables message archiving for compliance, assures availability and continuity, and provides the visibility to achieve more efficient message management. 4

5 I am very pleased with the entire Postini solution. Our IT department was, at one time, spending 4 hours a day weeding through spam. Now Postini handles everything and our technology group can focus on real issues. Security Postini blocks spam, viruses, IM worms, directory harvest attacks, and other and IM threats before they can reach your network or mobile users, with patented technology that delivers unmatched protection for and instant messaging. In addition, Postini provides web content filtering to protect you from objectionable and offensive web content, reduce recreational surfing, conserve network bandwidth and enforce web access policies. Compliance Postini enables enterprises to enforce content policies, safeguard proprietary data, ensure legal readiness and compliance, and protect business relationships through policy-driven content filtering, and IM archiving, and automatic encryption based on global, group or individual user requirements. Availability Postini ensures continuity and prevents message loss via automatic disaster recovery, failover support, offsite message archiving, and data-center redundancy, delivering the uptime, responsiveness and message integrity you demand regardless of traffic volume or complexity of the enterprise environment. Visibility Postini provides unmatched, real-time command and control of the entire enterprise messaging environment by allowing you to manage and supervise all services and policies for all users and locations from a single Web-based administrative console that displays real-time dashboard views, detailed usage reports, and a corporate message archive. POINT SOLUTIONS vs. POSTINI S INTEGRATED SOLUTION Point Solutions Postini Integrated Message Management ANTI-VIRUS ARCHIVING ANTI-SPAM/ ANTI-VIRUS ENCRYPTION SECURE IM WEB CONTENT FILTERING COMPLIANCE/POLICY vs. ARCHIVING OUTBOUND FILTERING SECURE/ENCRYPTED ANTI-SPAM SECURE IM WEB CONTENT FILTERING Common Management Console Figure 3: While many organizations struggle to control the complexity of multiple security point products, Postini provides a single integrated solution that combines and IM protection, archiving, encryption and continuity, all managed through a single console. 5

6 The Postini implementation is one of the most successful IT projects ever executed at our company. Compared to other spam products our company has used, Postini is head and shoulders above all the others SWITCH TO POSTINI AND GAIN BENEFITS OF INTEGRATED MESSAGE MANAGEMENT As a managed service, Integrated Message Management from Postini enables you to deliver the business benefits of and IM as communications tools without the associated costs, risks and complexities of in-house software or appliance products. Mitigate Business Risks Postini protects your message systems from the latest threats, prevents policy violations and liabilities, as well as protecting intellectual property from theft or abuse. Enforce Policy Compliance Postini s single policy framework enables you to set, streamline and enforce policies for message usage, attachments, archiving and encryption, helping to achieve compliance. Eliminate Complexity Postini s managed service model provides single point of control and management that eliminates the cost and complexity of deploying multiple point solutions. Reduce Operating Costs Postini replaces escalating capital and capacity costs associated with appliance or software point products with a predictable monthly operation expense that scales to suit your needs. Assure Message Continuity Postini s certified, secure multiple datacenters throughout the world assure percent uptime through a managed service that scales to your message needs. Improve Productivity Postini improves employee productivity and reduces help desk overhead by enabling user self service within policy limits. From one convenient Webbased Message Center, users can access their own spam quarantines, search personal archives, adjust personal filters, maintain white- and blacklists, and control other settings, without help from an administrator. Expand International Support Postini makes it easy for any business to offer protection to users around the globe. Our end-user Message Center is available in 14 European and Asian languages, while Postini customer service and support is available 24/7 at locations worldwide. SWITCHING IS EASIER THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT For more information about Postini Perimeter Manager contact Postini toll-free at , us at sales@postini.com or visit our web site at References: 1) Security: Appliances, Software and Services , Teleconference, The Radicati Group, March 31, ) All quotes from Postini customers based on 400 survey responses in February ) Spam in the Wild: The Sequel, Network World magazine, Dec. 20, ) Interview with Michael Osterman, Principal Analyst at Osterman Research Dec ) An Evaluation of the Total Cost of Ownership of Security Solutions, Jason Wright, Frost & Sullivan, January 17, ABOUT POSTINI As the leader in Integrated Message Management, Postini managed services protect businesses from a wide range of IM and threats, provide message archiving and encryption, and enable the management and enforcement of enterprise policies to meet regulatory compliance requirements. Corporate Headquarters San Carlos, CA USA Toll-free: info@postini.com EMEA Headquarters London, UK Tel: +44 (0) info_emea@postini.com Asia Pacific Headquarters Tokyo, Japan Tel: info_apac@postini.com Copyright 2006 Postini, Inc. All rights reserved. WP Postini, the Postini logo and Postini Perimeter Manager are registered trademarks or service marks of Postini, Inc. PREEMPT is a trademark of Postini, Inc. All other trademarks listed in this document are the property of their respective owners. 6