If you want someone else to worry about email borne viruses and spam then this service from Google, one of the fruits of its purchase of Postini, is a reasonable option. The setup does not require a modicum of IT knowledge; it consists of uploading a list of users and changing you MX records (mail exchanger records). Once configured the service scans all email for viruses and spam before forwarding your mail to your servers.

We like the user account synchronisation and single sign on features. The service also provides a good plug-in to MS Outlook that allows users to search their message archive. On the security side, Google supports TLS (Transport Layer Security) which should improve the security of emails that you exchange with your business partners. You can even set the service to require TLS for specific email domains, so you know that emails to and from these domains cannot be read on the Internet.

The service does not offer filtering for obscene images; Google claims that such protection does not work anyway. We have to agree; simply analysing a percentage of skin tones in a picture is not going to differentiate between obscene content and legitimate family pictures.

MessageLabs AntiSpam is a managed solution so there is no complicated installation to undergo, the only real pain is getting your individual settings defined (such as the white list). Once this is done it just continues to work. You can purchase different modules on top of the default antivirus and antispam, like content filter and image control. We have some reservations to the image control module as we do not think the accuracy of such a solution is good enough not to block legitimate family images.

In addition to defining your individual settings, the installation simply requires you to amend your MX records (mail exchanger records) to point to those of the service. The incoming emails are accepted by the MessageLabs system, and then analysed before being delivered on to you if clean.If the destination of a message is unreachable, the message is stored on disk, by MessageLabs, however the sender is notified. MessageLabs claims that they can stop 99% of spam (the actual figure is 99.4%).

This is different from Google's pass through system, which operates by scanning messages within memory only, which is then forwarded to its destination if clean; if the destination is unreachable, the sender can be configured to be notified. We found this method to be faster.

The service by MessageLabs will be a great worry for organisations who offer traditional antispam software or hardware. These solutions require experienced security professionals to maintain, with MessageLabs you can get this done with considerably lower TCO than such traditional solutions.

If you want someone else to worry about email borne viruses and spam then this service from Google, one of the fruits of its purchase of Postini, is a reasonable option. The setup does not require a modicum of IT knowledge; it consists of uploading a list of users and changing you MX records (mail exchanger records). Once configured the service scans all email for viruses and spam before forwarding your mail to your servers. In addition the service will archive emails for as long as you need. You do need to specify the number of years you wish to retain those email for when you order the service. This archiving feature is useful as it provides a handy backup of fall-back mechanism. There is no volume limit and you only pay for number of years that you specify. Additional years are charged for at a discounted rate. However, you should bear in mind that, despite the name of the service, this is not a legal archive and is no substitute for proper email management solutions.

We like the user account synchronisation and single sign on features. The service also provides a good plug-in to MS Outlook that allows users to search their message archive. On the security side, Google supports TLS (Transport Layer Security) which should improve the security of emails that you exchange with your business partners. You can even set the service to require TLS for specific email domains, so you know that emails to and from these domains cannot be read on the Internet.

The service does not offer filtering for obscene images; Google claims that such protection does not work anyway. We have to agree; simply analysing a percentage of skin tones in a picture is not going to differentiate between obscene content and legitimate family pictures.