O2 Security's SifoML S200 is a hardware-based appliance for managing and securing email content. The device is available in various hard disk configurations and offers anti-malware, anti-spam, anti-phishing and many other features.
Installation is easy, and we had the device up and running within our test environment in a few minutes. One small item we noted was that the device contains two URL paths; one is for administration of the device, but a second URL path is used for reporting purposes.
The interface for the administrator side of the device is fairly easy to navigate and use. All of the features are configured on the left-hand side of the page, with the middle portion of the interface sorted in a tabular format. From a performance perspective, we noticed that the device consumed a large amount of memory. Our device was shipped with 512MB of RAM, and in an idle state, with no activity or emails to process, the device consumes almost half of its physical memory.
The appliance has all of the features you would expect: anti-malware, anti-spam, anti-phishing and a compliance module for customising content analysis based on attachments, sizes, volume and other items. Emails can be secured through IP reputation, sender validation and content inspection.
One complaint we have is that compliance policy rules need to be customised and entered by the administrator. The solution does not come with any pre-defined dictionary templates or rules.
Backup and restoration, automated reporting and other tasks are easy to configure and perform. However, we are not sure why it contains two different URL paths, since neither is accessible from the other.
Documentation is adequate, although a bit on the short side. Most functionality is explained through the different help files.
O2 Security offers email- and phone-based support, with 8/5 and 24/7 options for customers and resellers. The O2 Security website contains documentation and other useful items.
The cost is a little on the high side, given the customisations that administrators will have to do, since it does not ship with pre-built dictionaries and templates for content filtering.