Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway (SEG) vs. Symantec Messaging Gateway

The CS SEG appliances are running as virtual appliances by now. They do need not much power in the ESX environment. I recommend to use at least two peers running in a cluster. The cluster feature is working very well. The CS SEG can process a huge number of emails in a very short time frame.

Incentivized

It is very well suited for an organization that wants to protect inbound email and use just one product. It may be less appropriate for an organization that is small or has a limited IT support staff.

Incentivized

• CS SEG is fast in email processing
• Managing the quarantine is easy
• Display of the reasons why an email has been processed this is very detailed

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• Prevents SPAM attacks.
• Filters email based on content.
• Blocks phishing links.
• Blocks ransomware links/attacks.

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• Improvement is needed in the area of AV/Antispam update processing (internally)
• Improvement is needed in the log file processing. Many log file entries are not understandable for an operator or administrator without special insider knowledge
• Clearswift has recently changed the support provider. Now there are no german supporters anymore.

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• The web interface can be difficult at times.

Incentivized

The Clearswift Secure Email Gateway (CS SEG) has very low license costs. A two peer cluster is enough to run a complete emailing gateway environment. Compared to the Proofpoint PPS the CS SEG does not need a management appliance. The CS SEG peers can manage the quarantine by themselves. This is easy to use and quite fast.

Incentivized

Without mentioning some of the other products by name, I can tell you that Symantec Messaging Gateway is one of the best.

Incentivized

• Since this CS SEG environment is operated for a customer, I cannot answer this question

Incentivized

• It would be difficult to determine the exact ROI Symantec Messaging Gateway had on your overall business. However, I can assure you the downtime suffered due to inbound email threats has been reduced to nearly zero in our environment. If IT isn't chasing down ransomware/phishing issues and users aren't staring at a quarantined PC, life is good.
• There are no negative impacts on ROI that I can think of.

Incentivized