IronPort C10 Targets SMBs

The company last week rolled out its new C10 messaging gateway, an all-in-one appliance that uses IronPort's four-layer e-mail filtering system to protect SMBs' mail servers from unwanted or malicious messages that make it past the firewall, said Jim Hyman, director of channel sales at IronPort, San Bruno, Calif.

Designed for businesses with fewer than 250 e-mail users, the platform-agnostic C10 sits between the firewall and the mail server and essentially combs incoming e-mail traffic for spam, viruses and business-sensitive data flowing in or out of the organization, Hyman said. The C10 provides a complete, rack-mounted hardware and software customized package.

The C10 is capable of processing 200 e-mails per second. The appliance quickly scrutinizes e-mails in four ways. First, a "reputation filter" is engaged to analyze the history of a particular e-mail sender, identifying if previous e-mails from the sender were allowed in or shut out. Then the C10 scans e-mails for specific content such as words like "resume" or strings of account numbers or passcodes, which the C10 can be programmed to flag and forward to the human resources or legal departments. A spam filter licensed from IronPort partner Brightmail makes up the third stage of protection within the C10. The virus-protection software licensed from partner Sophos inspects e-mails before forwarding accepted messages on to the server, explained Hyman.

The C10 is the only solution of its type that CGAtlantic, a New York-based IronPort channel partnerwill offer to SMB customers. "Most companies have security, most companies have defenses in place. What they may not be up to speed on is the perimeter defense,a multilayer security approach [like IronPort's]," said Bob Cohen, president and CEO of CGAtlantic.

Available exclusively through the channel, IronPort's C10 starts at $9,950 for a one-year license for 250 e-mail seats, with annual renewals at $4,000, Hyman said.