Review: 3 Ways To Kill Spam Dead

MX Logic Email Defense Service utilizes the Stacked Classification Framework, which consists of multiple layers of spam-fighting techniques, to aggregate and analyze spam-likelihood scores. Reputation filtering is the first line of defense. MX Logic looks at the message's SPF/Sender ID record, uses blacklists, whitelists and URL filtering, examines HTML tags and JavaScript, scans for worms and viruses, uses a multilanguage filter to identify phishing messages regardless of language, and performs deep content analysis to block attachment-based spam, including PDF files and image-based spam. MX Logic also utilizes a statistical Bayesian algorithm to determine the probability that a message is spam, based on how often elements have appeared in other spam e-mails. Finally, MX Logic applies its own proprietary rules based on the company's analysis of global spam. Messages that may or may not be spam are stored in user-specific quarantines accessible online.

As a hosted solution, nothing is installed at the customer site. The domain's MX record points to MX Logic's servers, so mail first is filtered through Email Defense. Spam messages are quarantined and legitimate mail is directed to the actual mail server for delivery. As such, deployment is straightforward. An account is created with the customer's billing address, domain name and e-mail address. The system administrator gets instructions on how to change the mail server's MX records. The solution provider can handle this for a fee. Users can be created to access quarantine information. A Web-based management interface, attachment and HTML filters are selected through the MX Control Console. By default, MX Logic rejects messages flagged as High spam and quarantines Medium messages.

About halfway through the test, a user on the test domain received about 300 messages an hour, of which 98 percent were denied, 1 percent was delivered and 1 percent was quarantined. This was a turnaround from the first day of testing, when about 20 percent of messages in quarantine were actually valid messages, and about a dozen spam messages showed up in the user's inbox. Since the service depends on the DNS entry having the updated MX record, some spam messages can bypass Email Defense and hit the mail server directly in the initial 24 hours. Towards the end of the test, the user reported having only one message every few days in quarantine that was fit to release and whitelist, and only one spam message squeaked through each day.

MX Logic offers a Message Continuity feature, where mail is queued if the mail server is down. Users can log in and read and reply to their messages even during an outage. Some solution providers use this feature as part of a planned migration, when moving one mail server to another.

The channel program has three tiers and is based on how much managed service support the partner wants or needs: F1, F2 and F3.

Margins can vary from 20 to 40 points, depending on the partner's MSP readiness.

Partners all have dedicated managers with MX Logic to provide field-based sales training, joint sales calls and market development. The Partner Portal offers deal registration and specific customer subscription information.

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