Clearswift launches the MIMEsweeper(TM) SMTP Appliance; 'MIMEsweeper in a Box' is First to Protect against Inbound and Outbound Threats.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Clearswift, the MIMEsweeper(TM) Company and world's #1 in Content Security, today launched the company's first e-mail security appliance.

The MIMEsweeper SMTP Appliance is based on a fully hardened Linux operating system, and will be available in three models for clients with fewer than 500 mail boxes, 500 to 1,000 mail boxes and more than 1,000 mail boxes. Comprising the award-winning MIMEsweeper for SMTP 5.0 engine, the company's flagship content security software, a brand new, world-beating anti-spam solution developed by Clearswift, a choice of third-party anti-virus solution as well as MIMEsweeper's default e-mail security policy, the appliance is the industry's first to address both inbound and outbound e-mail content security.

The launch of this new appliance makes Clearswift the first company to market content security solutions in three different form factors -- software, managed service and appliances.

"MIMEsweeper is licensed to over 15,000 businesses worldwide and is being used to protect 20 million users. However, some customers want the power of MIMEsweeper in a hardened, plug and play appliance for even easier deployment and management. That's why we've developed the MIMEsweeper SMTP Appliance," said Ian Bowles, Clearswift's SVP global operations.

"Clearswift has raised the bar in the appliance market. Our appliance road map shows clear leadership and vision in the growing content security market. Most vendors only provide basic functionality -- such as anti-virus, anti-spam, and if offered at all, very limited content filtering. As a result many appliances 'look' the same, but fail to answer both the content security and governance needs of enterprises. We are the first company to offer true content security in an appliance, a real differentiator in this emerging market."

"Appliances are rapidly becoming the preferred solution form factor for delivering security," said Oliver Harcourt, senior research analyst at leading market analysis firm IDC. "Customers are turning to appliances because of associated deployment, management, performance and cost benefits. IDC placed Clearswift at the top of the global messaging security software market in its last annual analysis. Offering this software as part of a hardened appliance is an interesting market proposition."

Four differentiators

First, Clearswift has developed an appliance that offers bi-directional content filtering, handling inbound as well as outbound e-mail threats. Most appliances protect only against inbound threats.

Second, Clearswift offers the best interface and management available on any appliance, with a completely new user interface which is 100 percent browser based. Included in this new interface is a new reporting center which is based on the breakthrough reporting functionality developed for the MIMEsweeper for SMTP 5.0 software solution. Administrators can generate in-depth graphical reports on the fly or schedule them to be delivered at a time and date of their choice. There are numerous reports available, covering both IT and business management needs, and administrators have total flexibility in specifying the depth of data they would like to see.

Third, Clearswift is offering MIMEsweeper's unrivalled inbound and outbound granular policy management unchanged in the appliance. These rules can be applied to a complete domain, a subset based on functional or geographical location or even down to an individual user e-mail address. Clearswift's policy engine probes deeply into every e-mail to protect against situations where threats are hidden within a file, determining from whom the message has come, where it is going and how it is constructed.

Fourth, by duplicating MIMEsweeper's software in a box, we are offering the market-leading content filtering engine unchanged on an appliance. Most other appliances do not offer any real content security at all. The award-winning MIMEsweeper engine delivers unique recursive content filtering. It looks deeper into embedded files, and is able to recognize and strip out threats that other solutions cannot spot.

MIMEsweeper in a box

The MIMEsweeper SMTP Appliance runs on a hardened operating system along with Web-based management, quarantine areas, reporting and delegated administration capabilities. Administrators have the ability to update the operating system and application software, and can also take full advantage of fully automated updates for anti-spam, anti-virus and managed lists. Critically, it also incorporates the complete "roles-based" content security functionality that has long been a standard in Clearswift's software solutions, which is designed to reduce IT operational and management burdens and ensure the right people control enterprise content policies.

It offers redundant hardware for full resilience and can process thousands of real messages per hour as well as reject messages from unwanted senders. Clearswift believes it will be deployed in two ways -- as a stand-alone appliance, normally deployed in a company's DMZ and managed over HTTP and HTTPS using the standard ports 80 and 443 or, in the largest companies, deployed in tandem with the company's software solution as a first layer of security at the company perimeter.

According to Alyn Hockey, technical director at Clearswift, beta users who have tested the product like the fact that it can be deployed quickly -- in a few minutes in some cases. "As IT departments become ever more cash and resource constrained, lifetime cost of ownership becomes an important criterion for choice," he said. "The easy deployment and lower internal support costs of the MIMEsweeper SMTP Appliance are very attractive."

"We are very excited about the launch of the Clearswift MIMEsweeper appliance solutions and believe that this will create many new sales opportunities for our reseller partners," said David Ellis, director of e-Security at Unipalm. "The platforms look extremely competitive in what is a very fast growing sector of the market," he continued.

The market for appliances

According to industry analyst the Radicati Group, the e-mail security market will reach $3.6 billion worldwide in 2005. The appliance segment will account for about 10 percent of this, but is the fastest-growing element since it is predicted to grow fourfold between 2005 and 2009. Datamonitor endorses these figures believing that in 2004 the European market for e-mail security appliances was worth $62 million and forecasts that the market will grow at a CAGR of 36 percent to reach $212m by 2008.

Product availability

MIMEsweeper SMTP Appliance is expected to begin shipping in volume in summer 2005 at prices that will be competitive with existing market offerings.

About Clearswift

Clearswift, the MIMEsweeper(TM) Company, is the world's leading provider of content security software for e-mail and Web. Clearswift secures content and protects against digital attacks by enforcing security policies that increase productivity, reduce IT costs and create a safer business environment.

The Internet is the greatest business tool ever invented, but with it comes a harrowing collection of threats. Protecting against the circulation of inappropriate images and text, spam, breaches of confidentiality, and viruses is now mission critical.

Clearswift enables organizations to protect themselves against digital attacks, meet legal and regulatory requirements, implement productivity-saving policies and manage intellectual property passing through their network.

Clearswift's portfolio includes MIMEsweeper, the world's most advanced content security solutions, as well as a range of specialized security solutions for the most security-conscious environments.

Clearswift has 15,000 customers and more than 20 million end users worldwide. It has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Japan and Australia.

www.clearswift.com

Clearswift, MAILsweeper, MIMEsweeper, spamActive and ENTERPRISEsuite are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States, United Kingdom and certain other countries, of Clearswift Ltd. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.