Aladdin&'s eSafe5 Grants Network Protection Wishes

The product is designed to be installed on an Intel-compatible server and acts as a gateway between the corporate network and the corporate firewall. Deployed as a virtual appliance, it leverages the server hardware to create an appliance that is dedicated for running the eSafe5 application and associated capabilities.

In practice, the product scans and cleans data passing through SMTP, HTTP, FTP and POP3 connections. Aladdin uses an in-house-developed signature-based antivirus engine, while the antispam signatures and URL filter databases are licensed from Cobion-ISS. The product uses active content scanning capabilities to deliver a comprehensive application-filtering system. Although signatures comprise most of the antimalware capabilities, eSafe5 also employs heuristics to fight zero-day attacks. The system also examines the intricacies of executables, content, protocols and HTML scripts with proprietary heuristics to identify anomalous code, and then takes the appropriate action.

Administrators can turn to the product&'s realtime statistics window to examine all current traffic, which is presented graphically according to protocol. An extensive selection of reports and alerts keeps administrators up to date on virus or other malware activity and any unauthorized attempts to enter the network. The reporting modules are SQL-based and readily enable data to be exported into a SQL database for further analysis. The same capabilities apply to the product&'s log files.

Content filtering can be defined by selecting acceptable Web pages as defined by more than 50 categories, which are built from more than 25 million Web sites. Content filtering offers additional protection by blocking executable files (even if the extension has been changed) and by deleting untrusted files from all Microsoft Office docs.

Until eSafe5 arrived on the scene, most solution providers had to choose security products based on balancing capabilities against integration issues, with the result being a disorganized mixture of needed functions, each with its own management issues. The eSafe5 product does an admirable job of negating the compromises often encountered by integrating several distinct security products. Deployed as an all-in-one virtual appliance, the product reduces management overhead, eliminates confusion and protects the network from several threats.

Aladdin&'s channel program has three partner levels, offering margins ranging from 20 percent to 35 percent. Silver-level partners have access to inside sales reps, company sales leads, Web-based training and access to a gated channel partner portal. Gold-level partners have access to dedicated regional sales managers, market development funds, sales training and access to beta products. The top tier, for Platinum partners, offers the highest product margins. All levels are based upon sales and training expectations.

Partners also have access to ongoing revenue opportunities in the form of upgrades, updates and subscriptions. Partners can earn significant revenue by pre-building appliances with the eSafe5 application and offering extensive integration and analysis services.

Aladdin has helped to close the gap between security threats and proactive solutions by offering a comprehensive package that not only handles the typical Internet-based threats, but also deals with the “unknown” threats. The company&'s technology combined with an adequate channel program can help solution providers score success in today&'s ever competitive gateway security market.