Email Security and Content Filtering - SC Magazine September 2012

SC Magazine has reviewed a dozen email security and content filtering tools in their September issue.  Their picks?  McAfee email protection received the  Best Buy designation.  Clearswift Secure email Gateway received their Recommended designation.  The fewest number of stars for Overall Rating was given to Trend Micro for their Trend Micro InterScan Messaging Security product.The fewest number of stars for Overall Rating was given to Trend Micro for their Trend Micro InterScan Messaging Security product. Three stars.

Companies whose products received an overall rating of five stars: Axway Mailgate SC, Cisco email Security Appliance, Clearswift  SECURE email Gateway, McAfee email Protection, WatchGuard Technologies SCS 570.

Others in the group test were - Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall, DataMotion SecureMail Gateway, Echoworx Encrypted Mail Gateway, Fortinet FortiMail, Halon Security Virtual Spam Prevention,  Titus Message Classification, Trend Micro InterScan Messaging Security.

Individuals unfamiliar with SC Magazine’s group test need to realize that these are not round-ups.  The products aren’t pitted against one another and then given some weighted average score (such as with the Forrester Wave).  Think of the products as  being evaluated in silos for features, ease of use, performance, documentation, support, value for money, and overall rating.    

One quibble about the SC Magazine Group Test. They need to be tougher with the vendors on pricing data.  All vendors should have to briefly describe their pricing model, whether it’s tiered, and whether it includes support (and if so, whether other levels are purchased).  SC Magazine should also specify a number of users for which they want the pricing information.  This will enable the reader to better compare the vendors.

The SC Group tests aren’t meant to provide an exhaustive 6-month evaluation of the products, putting them through their paces.  It’s nonetheless a useful set of data points.

A half dozen of the companies in the SC Magazine Group Test are also in the 2012  August Gartner Magic Quadrant for Secure email Gateways document, including McAfee and Cisco. Both of whom are among the Leaders.  McAfee isn't   in the upper most right hand corner of the quadrant.

How Do You Use the Gartner Magic Quadrant?

According to Gartner - Clients use Magic Quadrants as a first step to understanding the technology providers they might consider for a specific investment opportunity.

Keep in mind that focusing on the leaders' quadrant isn't always the best course of action.  There are good reasons to consider market challengers.  And a niche player may support your needs better than a market leader.  It all depends on how the provider aligns with your business goals.

http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/research_mq.jsp

Two documents from Gartner that you  may want to purchase “Assessing Secure Web Gateway Technologies”, published in August (ID:  G00231775) and “Gartner Magic Quadrant for Secure email Gateways (ID:  G00231775).  The latter may be available from vendors that are included in the analysis.

You may also want to purchase Forrester’s document, “Market Overview: Content Security, Q3 2011”.

To access the group test  -

http://www.scmagazine.com/email-security--content-filtering/grouptest/273/