The Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway has many great features. By sitting at the gateway between the firewall and mail server, it is able to monitor all incoming and outgoing mail closely for suspicious content or possible threats. The appliance uses the Proofpoint MLX engine, which provides ongoing learning to identify spam and other potentially dangerous threats.
This product was easy to use and deploy. However, we found the web interface to be difficult to navigate as it is broken down into several categories. While this makes the appliance flexible, having so many categories can make finding exactly what you are looking for a cumbersome process.
This appliance protects against many types of dangerous content, including spam, known and emerging viruses, and connection-level attacks and hackers. It also provides a small default dictionary of offensive words that can be used for additional content filtering. Rules also can be created to enforce compliance at the level of content, as well as regulatory compliance standards, such as HIPAA and GLBA.
The documentation for this product begins with a large quick-start card and installation guide that work together in the initial set-up and configuration of the appliance. The quick-start card is well-organized and provides easy, step-by-step instructions on deploying the appliance into the environment. Once the appliance web interface is reachable, an administration guide is available in PDF format. The admin guide provides configuration instructions in a well-organized format.
Support, maintenance and updates are included in the subscription price. Additional options, including training courses, installation packages, a dedicated technical account manager, etc., are also available.
The Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway is priced as a one-time fee for the appliance hardware, plus a software subscription to Proofpoint’s modular messaging security services, which are priced on a per-user (mailbox), per-year basis depending on the number of users. Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway model P800 appliance is $9,750 (one-time cost). This includes Proofpoint Email Firewall and Proofpoint Content Compliance modules. While the price for the appliance itself may seem like a bargain, since licensing is done on a per user level, for a large enterprise this device can become a pricey investment.
