Hamline University Deploys Proofpoint on Demand for Comprehensive Email Security
Hosted Service Chosen for Hands-off Management, Cost Effectiveness and Accuracy of Spam Detection
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 7 - Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified email security and data loss prevention solutions, today announced that Hamline University (Saint Paul, Minnesota) has deployed Proofpoint on Demand(TM) to keep its 10,000 email accounts free from incoming spam and viruses. With the Proofpoint on Demand hosted service, Hamline University benefits from the effectiveness of Proofpoint's enterprise-proven email security platform, as well as ease-of-management and flexible end user controls, without the overhead of on-premise hardware or software.
Hamline University's previous on-premises messaging security solution could not keep up with the increasing volume of spam messages, and had a high rate of both false positives (legitimate messages marked as spam) and false negatives (spam messages that get past the filter), requiring constant, ongoing manual intervention from IT. In order to ease this administrative burden, the university decided to investigate hosted messaging security platforms which could be easily customized, up and running quickly and ideally eliminate the management headaches that can accompany traditional anti-spam and virus platforms.
In addition to being a true "set it and forget it" solution, Hamline University required a hosted service that could detect all types of undesirable inbound email messages with a high rate of effectiveness, was easy to use and gave end users the flexibility to determine their own individual levels of protection. Proofpoint on Demand met all of Hamline University's buying criteria, with its Web-based administrative interface and superior spam detection standing out from other hosted messaging security solutions on the market.
"With Proofpoint on Demand, we get the same level of control and customization as with Proofpoint's appliance or software, but Proofpoint manages everything else," said Anthony Schroeder, director of network services with Hamline University. "After configuring our preferences, we basically just flipped the switch and immediately nearly 100 percent of spam was stopped right at the gateway. And the extremely high accuracy of Proofpoint's anti-spam technology has eliminated the issues we used to experience with false positives. We haven't looked back since. The best part is that the administrative involvement on my end is virtually zero."
Hamline University has different groups of email users - students, faculty and staff - with varying interests in controlling how individual spam messages are presented. Due to the ineffectiveness of the university's previous anti-spam solution, some faculty members were concerned about having business messages inaccurately labeled as spam. Using Proofpoint's end-user digest feature, Hamline University gives individuals users the option of being able to review all quarantined spam messages, all spam messages without adult content or just quarantined messages with a low spam rating - and individual preferences can be changed at any time.
Hamline University also takes advantage of Proofpoint's customizable, real-time reporting features. "Proofpoint makes it very easy for me to see exactly how much spam is comprising our inbound messaging stream - typically around 80 percent - and then to share those figures with others at the university," said Schroeder.
"Proofpoint gives universities, and other organizations, the utmost flexibility, providing the same email security and data loss prevention modules via a hosted service, hardware appliance, virtual appliance, and software," said Sandra Vaughan, senior vice president of products and marketing for Proofpoint. "Regardless of the deployment form factor, Proofpoint provides customers with comprehensive protection against both inbound threats and outbound content security risks, which can easily be expanded as messaging security needs change."
Learn More about Proofpoint's Industry Leading Email Security and Data Loss Prevention Solutions
To learn more about Proofpoint's email security and data loss prevention solutions, sign up to attend Proofpoint's free, live Web seminar, "Top 10 Email Security Challenges - and Solutions - for 2008 and Beyond" being held Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT. To register, please visit:
http://www.proofpoint.com/top10for2008
About Proofpoint, Inc.
Proofpoint provides unified email security and data loss prevention solutions for enterprises, universities, government organizations and ISPs to defend against inbound threats such as spam and viruses, prevent leaks of confidential and private information across all protocols, and encrypt sensitive emails. Proofpoint's products are controlled by a single management and policy console and are powered by Proofpoint MLX(TM) technology, an advanced machine learning system developed by Proofpoint scientists and engineers. Proofpoint provides the most scalable and flexible deployment model including: hardware appliance, virtual appliance, hosted services and software. For more information, please visit http://www.proofpoint.com/.
Source: Proofpoint, Inc.
CONTACT: Abby Dougherty of Davies Murphy Group, Inc., +1-781-418-2427, pr@proofpoint.com, for Proofpoint
Web site: http://www.proofpoint.com/
