Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway is a unified email security appliance that delivers a host of features to protect inbound and outbound messaging. Based on either a hardware or virtual ("in the cloud") setup, it offers real-time protection for SMTP, POP and web-mail messages. Its features include anti-malware, anti-spam, content filtering and email encryption.
Installation is as easy as racking the device and using a keyboard and monitor attached to the appliance. Although the addition of remote, web-based setup would have been nice, initial configuration is straightforward.
Once the appliance is up and running, the interface for its Protection Server is definitely enterprise class. The web-based dashboard has web-parts (widgets) that can be dragged and dropped, making for some intuitive configuration exercises. As easy as the interface is to use, the solution itself is sophisticated. Plenty of enterprise-class features are present, including built-in rule-sets based on sender/domain, anti-malware and anti-spam.
What really shines in this product is the intuitive way you manage smart identifiers. Within the Regulatory Compliance Module, you can filter messages based on regular expressions and other pre-defined regulatory and compliance filters for preventing the leakage of social security and credit card numbers. However, you can easily add a list of your business partners and whether or not to apply the filters for them.
The number of useful security features underscores the fact that this is truly a mature and unified secure messaging platform. Administrators will appreciate the granular control over logs, quarantine, automated report scheduling and other tasks.
Documentation is online from the appliance itself, or through off-line PDF files, which are extensive and easy to read.
Several support packages are available, including gold (8/5), platinum (24/7) - at 8 per cent of the licence fee - and premium (dedicated account management, training etc). The Proofpoint website has many useful options for support, including video tutorials, forums and so forth.