Content

Messaging Suite

This product is a fully-fledged email server that includes a number of features essential to the secure operation of an enterprise's communications.

While the software offers the enterprise email, calendaring, instant messaging and SMS capabilities, we were more interested in its security functions.

Installation was easy and the documentation makes claims about how easy it is to install the server software and get it up and running. While those claims are justified, we are baffled by other claims on Gordano's website about the product offering 100-percent effectiveness against spam "given the correct configuration."

There are a lot of really good anti-spam products on the market, and very few make such claims to be completely effective.

To be fair to Gordano, our test server was not the fastest, but as this product is likely to be picked up by organizations with a keen budget, it reflects a real-world situation where the server will not be the fastest on the block. It just about kept up with the amount of junk mail we threw at it, but a bit of fine-tuning should make this bird sing.

One of the advanced features for dealing with suspect mail is called Unknown User Action. This is a set of rules to deal with mail coming from an unknown user. The server is configured to either redirect the mail to another server, fail to/transfer to a specified user account or reject the message. Documentation is average. Online, you need to log into the support system to search, but there is no link from the support page to facilitate a login – only from within knowledge base articles, which seems clumsy.

There are also whitelists, realtime blacklists and more efficient Bayesian filters than in the earlier version. The server's tests for dealing with junk mail are thorough.

Anti-spam functionality is reasonable, although there is a lot of strain while the server processes mail. This product is very good value for what it is – a general-purpose mail/messaging server. A meatier server would bring out the software's full capabilities.

Product title
Messaging Suite
Product info
Name: Messaging Suite (Email filtering 2005) Description: Price: $7,159 for 1,000 users ($3,948 without AV)
Strength
A good general purpose messaging suite.
Weakness
Needs a lot of firepower if expecting a large amount of mail going through the server.
Verdict
Might require another line of defense to keep the software running smoothly.

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.