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As antivirus appliances proliferate…

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CIOL Bureau
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Jan Sundgren

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The options available to customers interested in antivirus appliances are
getting better and better. We are currently seeing a wave of new releases, some
of which are adding new capabilities and bundling together antivirus
technologies in new ways. Giga’s view of security appliances is generally
favorable, particularly if the hardware and software come from one vendor.
Antivirus is particularly well suited to the plug-and-play convenience of the
appliance approach. We expect the launch of more appliances and we expect them
to find customers, particularly among small to midsize enterprises.

As appliances proliferate, the growth enjoyed by the products that first
appeared on the market may slow, especially if multiple products start to appear
in the same market niches. In addition, antivirus appliances will face
competition from the outsourcing option, which offers some of the same
advantages, as well as more comprehensive security appliances that bundle
antivirus with other security functions like firewalling and intrusion
detection.

Ultimately, the danger may arise that some products could be dropped, as
customer experiences and market forces settle on optimal bundlings. But
single-purpose appliances offer advantages that could prevail – notably, the
ability to mix and match products – and for the time being the news is good
for customers that will have an expanding range of choices. Among the recently
released antivirus appliances, we have the following:

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  • McAfee
    • WebShield e250: This appliance offers the same features as the
    WebShield e500, but in a scaled-down version suitable for customers with less
    than 500 nodes. The e250 processes up to 30,000 messages per hour, whereas the
    e500 does more than 100,000. Both appliances offer content-filtering
    capabilities and the ability to plug into ePolicy Orchestrator for reporting
    (though not updating). Unique to this line of appliances is the ability to
    scan POP3 as well as SMTP, HTTP and FTP.

  • Aladdin eSafe Appliance: A Linux-based box that packs in both eSafe
    Gateway and eSafe Mail, offering the company’s proactive gateway protection,
    as well as traditional pattern-matching and comprehensive content-filtering.
    Its performance capabilities allow it to process one million emails a day.

  • Finjan SurfinGate for E-Mail: Another appliance that combines pattern
    matching (as part of a deal with McAfee) and the proactive capabilities of
    Finjan’s gateway product. Unlike the other two mentioned, this appliance
    focuses on e-mail. It has some content-filtering capabilities, but not the
    ability to scan for text in the message or subject heading.
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