Symantec's BrightMail Gateway (formerly Symantec Mail Security 8300) is an appliance-based solution that protects inbound and outbound email messages, as well as other protocols, such as instant messaging. The appliance has a number of protection mechanisms - including encryption, anti-malware, anti-spam and smart identifiers - to help prevent data leakage.
Initial configuration of the appliance wasn't as easy as we'd like. Although there are no significant technical hurdles to overcome, we felt that it could have been a bit more intuitive.
Users who are familiar with Symantec's products will instantly recognize the look and feel of the web-based dashboard. Visually it has a polished look and feel, and all of the relevant data contained within the reports and graphs is partly based on Symantec's familiar ThreatCon model. Within the solution, there are several features that go above and beyond just email protection.
Symantec also includes a module to protect against data leakage from a regulatory compliance perspective. This is built on pre-defined dictionaries, smart identifiers and other content. The list of pre-built dictionaries and regular expression templates is impressive and the solution can monitor for several different types of data. Overall, the appliance has a strong set of granular administrative features, including automated report scheduling, detailed logs and backup/restoration of the appliance data.
Documentation for the device is excellent and includes a thorough hard copy binder, which outlines every detail of the solution. Help is available online within the appliance as well.
No-cost support is included in the base price and contains a warranty for the hardware, as well as software upgrades for the appliance. Essential support is available for a five percent fee above the base cost.
Pricing of the appliance hardware is $995. A subscription for 100 users is $21.00/user; 250 users: $19.20/user; and 500 users: $18.00/user.
Overall, this is a solid offering. It is a truly enterprise-class appliance that has plenty of features that scale nicely for several different sizes of business.
Initial configuration of the appliance wasn't as easy as we'd like. Although there are no significant technical hurdles to overcome, we felt that it could have been a bit more intuitive.
Users who are familiar with Symantec's products will instantly recognize the look and feel of the web-based dashboard. Visually it has a polished look and feel, and all of the relevant data contained within the reports and graphs is partly based on Symantec's familiar ThreatCon model. Within the solution, there are several features that go above and beyond just email protection.
Symantec also includes a module to protect against data leakage from a regulatory compliance perspective. This is built on pre-defined dictionaries, smart identifiers and other content. The list of pre-built dictionaries and regular expression templates is impressive and the solution can monitor for several different types of data. Overall, the appliance has a strong set of granular administrative features, including automated report scheduling, detailed logs and backup/restoration of the appliance data.
Documentation for the device is excellent and includes a thorough hard copy binder, which outlines every detail of the solution. Help is available online within the appliance as well.
No-cost support is included in the base price and contains a warranty for the hardware, as well as software upgrades for the appliance. Essential support is available for a five percent fee above the base cost.
Pricing of the appliance hardware is $995. A subscription for 100 users is $21.00/user; 250 users: $19.20/user; and 500 users: $18.00/user.
Overall, this is a solid offering. It is a truly enterprise-class appliance that has plenty of features that scale nicely for several different sizes of business.
