Symantec Unveils E-mail Security Appliances

Symantec entered the e-mail security appliance market Monday with the introduction of three gateway and network edge devices that promise to reduce spam and defend against incoming viruses and worms.

The two new lines -- the Mail Security 8100 and the 8200 series -- will be available at the end of February, said Symantec, and aren't meant to compete with long-time partners such as IronPort, which sells its own appliances based on Symantec's software technologies.

The 8160, the only model in the 8100 line, will cut unwanted e-mail heading to corporate networks and Internet service provider in half, said Daniel Freeman, the product manager for the two new appliance lines.

"It will eliminate 50 percent of all [unwanted] incoming mail before it hits the gateway," said Freeman. The 8160, which is positioned at the network edge, is designed to reduce e-mail infrastructure and storage costs and trim administrative labor now devoted to managing the huge volumes of mail, most of which is spam.

"The 8160 filters at the TCP/IP level, not the SMTP level," said Freeman in explaining how the appliance shapes traffic flow by stopping spam on the spammer's servers.The appliance is powered by Symantec's Brightmail anti-spam technology, and uses what Symantec dubs "Sender Reputation Service," a real-time monitoring and spam assessment service that identifies spammers' IP addresses (rather than their sending addresses) and then blocks the mail.

"Sender Reputation analyzes the frequency of the IP addresses used to send mail to a given customer. It essentially identifies the trends of mail traffic to that customer. Is the sender legitimate, an occasionally spammer, or always a spammer?" The service updates every hour, so as soon as a spammer stops bombarding recipients from an IP address, that address will begin to move toward a more favorable rating.

The 8240 and 8260, meanwhile, are gateway-deployed appliances that combine Brightmail's anti-spam defenses, Symantec's own AntiVirus technologies, and an e-mail firewall. The two are aimed at medium-to-large enterprises, and integrates a slew of e-mail management and security services, ranging from attack prevention and encryption to content filtering and compliance archiving.

Previously, Symantec had been selling its Brightmail defenses only in software form; this is the first time it's added the technology to one of its own appliances. "But the 8200 isn't just Brightmail on a box," Freeman asserted.

Like the 8160, the 8200 appliances have traffic-shaping skills that should lower the amount of e-mail reaching the gateway, although in the case of these models, Symantec's claiming that they'll reduce unwanted mail only by about 25 percent.The 8240's meant for companies with 100 to 1,000 users, while the 8260 -- which has nearly double the storage capacity and includes redundant power supplies and fans -- targets firms with more than 1,000 users.

All three of the new appliances are priced as hardware-only, with the necessary software licenses available in an ala carte style so customers can pick and choose, said Freeman, which defenses they want to deploy.

The 8240 costs $1,995, while the 8260 and 8160 both bear $4,995 price tags. The software, which is purchased in per-user, per-year subscriptions, comes in one-, two-, and three-year plans.

Also on Monday, Symantec partner IronPort announced a new four-year deal that will let the San Bruno, Calif.-based appliance maker use the Brightmail and AntiVirus engines in its own C-Series.

Freeman denied that Symantec's entry into the appliance market would throw a wrench into the relationship with IronPort.0