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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:

  • 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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