Proofpoint Broadens Hybrid Email Security Offerings

By Stephanie Jordan
in

Proofpoint, Inc., a provider of unified email security, archiving and data loss prevention solutions, last week announced that it has broadened its hybrid email security offerings with the availability of Proofpoint Shield, the industry’s first enterprise email security solution designed specifically for organizations that seek to leverage the benefits of a hybrid on-demand/on-premises deployment. The company says Proofpoint Shield, a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution, defends against malicious and spammy email connections, dramatically reduces inbound spam volume and prevents denial-of-service and directory harvest attacks.

“Rapid fluctuations in spam volume and the unpredictable nature of DOS and DHA attacks can result in massive spikes in email traffic,” says Paul LaPorte, global solutions marketing manager for Proofpoint, Inc. “Proofpoint Shield eliminates the bulk of inbound spam and malicious connections and improves the efficiency, stability and effectiveness of an organization’s downstream email infrastructure, without having to add additional security appliances or other components. It gives organizations a low total-cost-of-ownership way to remove the uncertainty around email volumes and increase the ROI from their existing email security infrastructure.”

Adds Brian Burke, research manager for IDC’s Security Products, “Hybrid and hosted services continue to be a popular form factor for deploying messaging security solutions, and we expect this to be a high-growth area in the coming years. IDC believes a layered on-demand/on-premises architecture provides a higher degree of security and addresses more security requirements compared with a single deployment model.” A recent IDC study, Worldwide Messaging Security 2008&#mdash;2012 Forecast, found that 25 percent of North American organizations have already adopted a hybrid mix of on-premises and hosted messaging security services. “Packaged solutions for hybrid email security, such as Proofpoint Shield, should be an attractive option for enterprises of any size,” concludes Burke.

Published February 9, 2009