SANTA CLARA,USA: McAfee, Inc. today outlined details of its Email security strategy, providing enterprises with the widest range of deployment choices and service options available today.

McAfee has broadened its deployment offerings with the recent acquisition of MX Logic and offers customers a full set of delivery options: appliance or software-as-a-service (SaaS), a combination of both, and the ability to choose a deployment option that best fits their needs.

Customers may now combine SaaS and integrated hardware/software appliances in any configuration. The end result is that organizations can easily deploy the security that best fits into existing infrastructures. This flexibility sets customers up for growth, enables the most favorable operational efficiencies, cost and resource optimization, and provides sound deployment options for energy optimization and Green IT.

Changing customer needs

“Customers have told us they shouldn’t be forced to choose between different delivery models for Email protection,” said Marc Olesen, senior vice president and general manager of the McAfee Software-as-a-Service business unit. “Our flexible delivery model offers cloud-based services and hardware-based appliances, and provides customers with the ability to mix and match based on their needs. Bottom line, we’re uniquely prepared to offer customers Email solutions that best meet their current and future business needs, maximize their flexibility and reduce total cost of ownership.”

“Hybrid Email offers a fully featured solution for today’s environment,” said Brian Burke, IDC analyst and program director, Security Products. “The hybrid approach offers the cost-savings and management ease of a cloud-based solution that reduces unwanted Email before it hits the corporate gateway. It allows for custom policies, data loss prevention and integrated encryption capabilities that are best provided by an on-premise appliance.”

McAfee’s approach

For customers who opt for a SaaS model, McAfee provides McAfee SaaS Email Protection, including the offerings gained in the MX Logic acquisition, to filter inbound and outbound email traffic in the cloud. Using an online console, administrators can fine-tune Email protection, establish group filtering policies, customize corporate policies, and stay abreast of message traffic flow and trends.

McAfee SaaS Email Protection defends against viruses and worms, blocks spam, quarantines suspect messages and filters outbound mail to prevent distribution of proprietary information. McAfee is also delivering Email Archiving and Email Continuity services in the cloud. These SaaS Email solutions deliver the following features and benefits:

•McAfee SaaS Email Archiving: Automatic real-time Email archiving to satisfy corporate and regulatory compliance requirements through document retention policies. Keeping Email data in the cloud lets enterprises effectively manage retention without the need for more hardware and management resources.
•McAfee SaaS Email Continuity: Full and automatic Email functionality in the cloud when an outage is detected. It delivers Email access, management and Email filtering to protect communications. This solution allows enterprises to keep communications flowing in the event of an outage.
Customers can also opt for a hybrid delivery model where they utilize McAfee Email Gateway on-premise to provide outbound protection from data leakage and support regulatory compliance with content filtering, automatic policy enforcement and integrated encryption at the gateway. McAfee, using its TrustedSource reputation technology, provides the highest percentage of spam reduction with zero false positives, blocking the majority of spam before it reaches the network enabling reduced bandwidth costs.

The hybrid solution leverages a multilayered strategy to successfully keep malicious messages out of the network. The solution uses McAfee SaaS Email Protection to filter spam in the cloud and the McAfee Email Gateway appliance on-premise to provide flexible policy creation and additional spam reduction with zero false positives. The on-premise appliance also provides data loss prevention capabilities, including automatic policy enforcement and encryption, to protect against data loss via email. Another approach to hybrid delivery is where customers can use McAfee Email Gateway appliance on-premise for email filtering and protection, and utilize McAfee SaaS Email Archiving to store email data in the cloud to meet regulatory compliance requirements.

Today, McAfee also announced a new version of the McAfee Email Gateway. The McAfee Email Gateway 6.7.2 appliance delivers total Email protection for enterprises, integrating comprehensive inbound threat protection with the most extensive on-box email data loss prevention in the industry. Delivered on easy-to-deploy appliances, McAfee Email Gateway provides enterprise-class features and flexibility to increase messaging security while reducing the costs associated with spam, bandwidth consumption, malware cleanup and data loss. The new version includes the following:

•Advanced encryption integration, including the ability to deploy push and pull encryption capabilities on an Email Gateway appliance.
•Support for McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator to give users access to centralized reporting, executive trending and aggregated dashboard events.
•Additional management features designed to simplify and streamline management of McAfee Email Gateway.
Pricing and Availability

McAfee Email Gateway appliances are available today, starting at $1,995 USD (MSRP). McAfee Email Gateway, v6.7.2 will be available in Q4. Pricing is based on the number of users, plus the cost of appliances. Pricing for 1000 users starts at $21,840 USD (MSRP). Exact pricing depends on customer requirements, selected model and associated add-on features. The add-on encryption feature pricing is $25,120 for 1000 users (MSRP).