Comparing Email Management Systems that Protect Against Spam, Viruses, Malware & Phishing Attacks

Comparing Email Managem ent
Systems that Protect Against Spam,
Viruses, Malware and Phishing Atta cks
sponsored by An Osterman Research White Paper Published December 2006 sponsored by
sponsored by Osterman Research, Inc. . P.O. Box 1058 . Black Diamond, Washington 98010-1058 Phone: +1 253 630 5839 . Fax: +1 866 842 3274 . info@ostermanresearch.com . www.ostermanresearch.com Comparing Email Management Systems that Protect Against Spam, Viruses, Malware and Phishing Attacks Why You Should Read This White Paper On several levels, email is the most important application used in business today: email is more important than the telephone for the vast majority of users, about 75% of the critical business content that users need on a daily basis is somehow bound up in their email system, and the typical user spends about 30% of his or her day doing something in their email client. In short, email is absolutely critical to the health and efficiency of just about any organization. Because email is so critical, managing it properly and protecting it from the growing array of threats that impact it is becoming increasingly important. Systems designed to protect email systems and users from spam, viruses, malware, phishing attacks and other threats must be extremely effective, they must operate with virtually no downtime and they must be easy to manage. Systems designed to protect email To understand organizations' perceptions about various systems and email management systems, Sunbelt Software engaged users from spam, Osterman Research to survey organizations that are using viruses, malware, five different email management systems. This white paper phishing attacks presents the results of those findings, comparing Sunbelt and other threats Software's Ninja Email Security with an average of the other must be four systems. extremely effective, they It is important to note two things about the research must operate conducted for this white paper: with virtually no downtime and they must be .As part of its proposal, Osterman Research gave Sunbelt easy to manage. Software the option to end the project after the research phase in the event that the survey results were not favorable. That did not happen. . All of the products researched for this project had strong points and came out at or near the top in some categories that were researched. The products selected for this analysis are all very capable and in use by millions of customers worldwide. In other words, we did not select second-tier products for this analysis.
© 2006 Osterman Research, Inc. Page 1 Comparing Email Management Systems that Protect Against Spam, Viruses, Malware and Phishing Attacks Methodology In designing the survey methodology for this white paper, we wanted to obtain 'real world' results from users of various email management systems instead of relying on laboratory testing of these systems. Our thought was that by understanding how various email management systems are used in production environments, we could obtain a solid understanding of the relative pros and cons of each tool. Further, our methodology could obtain results, such as labor investments required to manage these systems, that would not be available via conventional laboratory testing. A total of 93 Web-based surveys were conducted during September through November 2006 with North American organizations of various sizes. The respondents were drawn We queried primarily from the Osterman Research Survey Panel, survey although Sunbelt Software also provided some contacts for respondents this research, as well. The products on which we focused in about the the surveys were: presence of these systems in . Barracuda Spam Firewall their . GFI MailEssentials organizations . McAfee GroupShield for Microsoft Exchange and then focused the vast .Sunbelt Software Ninja Email Security majority of the .Symantec Brightmail questions on the system with We queried survey respondents about the use of these tools which in their organizations and then focused the vast majority of respondents the questions on the system with which respondents were were most most familiar. In order to qualify to complete the survey, familiar. respondents had to be involved in the management of their or... [download for more]