Since the
SmarterMail 6.x BETA announcement, we have received a lot of interest regarding the coming ability to include
Commtouch Anti-Spam as a premium spam protection add-on to SmarterMail. After all, SmarterMail currently achieves up to 97% spam protection out-of-the-box. Where do you go from there?
The answer lies in the prevalence of spam and the constantly evolving threat that spammers represent. Recent statistics suggest that 90.4% of all email traffic (by count) is spam—a staggering number to be sure. In most businesses, achieving 97% performance might be seen as a big success—and actually, it is.
Email has become a mission-critical application that directly impacts productivity and—at the same time—is a very personal, almost intimate, method of communication. If a user receives 20 real or “wanted” messages per day, his mailbox is being hit with about 180 spam messages per day. Blocking 97% of spam means that you are stopping 174.6 of the “unwanted” emails. Unfortunately, what the user sees is a mailbox with 20 “good” messages and 5 to 6 “bad” ones. In the eyes of that end user (or, more to the point, your CEO), more than 20% of the received mail is spam.
So, for every 1% improvement in total spam prevention, the end user will actually perceive that improvement to be near 7%. This can make all the difference to busy executives and demanding hosting customers. If companies like SmarterTools and Commtouch can work together to keep at least 99.5% of spam out of inboxes—which our testing suggests can be achieved—that extra 2 to 3% of spam caught will result in the perception that spam protection is approaching five nines.
SmarterMail 5.x already incorporates more than a dozen antispam measures, including:
- SpamAssassin
- Greylisting
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
- DomainKeys
- Custom Headers
- Bayesian Filtering
- Reverse Domain Name Server (DNS)
- Real-Time Blacklist (RBL)
- Blacklist/Whitelist
- SMTP Blocking
- Per-user Spam Weighting
The new SmarterMail 6.x—now in full BETA test—builds upon this solid base with a new proprietary pattern-matching engine based upon SpamAssassin technology, enhancements to greylisting, DKIM, and more. These improvements will undoubtedly increase SmarterMail’s already impressive performance, but SmarterTools decided that we could do more to help users keep spam out of their inboxes.
Choosing a Spam Protection Partner
Late last year, we set out to evaluate the possible addition of new and/or third-party technology to allow for even better spam protection for our customers. We had some basic criteria:
- The proposed technology had to show real, measurable improvements that delivered value
- The licensing model had to be flexible and able to accommodate our existing licensing model for SmarterMail
- The technology should be complimentary—meaning that spam solutions that duplicated or mirrored one or several of our existing antispam measures should be avoided
SmarterTools evaluated more than a half dozen technologies before deciding on Commtouch. Many were solid enough, but had antispam measures very similar to the sets that were currently in SmarterMail out-of-the-box. Others relied too much on visitor scoring, which can be unreliable, spotty, and at times conflicted (sometimes one man’s spam is another man’s valuable news).
Why We Chose Commtouch
Commtouch uses a world-wide network of detection devices to identify spam threats in real time based upon their internal analytics. This method of distributed collection, sometimes referred to as sniffing, allows the Commtouch technology to identify spam with a very high degree of certainty when spam outbreaks are in the earliest stages. Commtouch then processes these messages to quickly distinguish spam from newsletters, feeds, and “wanted” advertisements. For customers that purchase the Commtouch add-on, SmarterMail is alerted to the specific spam threat in real time. In many cases, the Commtouch spam identification is learned and scored before the first spam message has even been read by an user. This type of remote sniffing technology seemed to be the best fit.
Commtouch did a good job of matching their licensing and terms to fit our customer base and product levels. They are also a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: CTCH) with a solid history and reputation. They have a proven model, reliable metrics, and a history of being able to manage the loads of both large hosting companies and small to medium sized businesses (SMBs). In a nutshell, Commtouch:
- Is a good technology fit
- Has a good reputation
- Offers a proven protection model
- Worked with SmarterTools to develop a flexible licensing model
Now in BETA
Want to try the Commtouch premium spam protection and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync add-ons for 30 days? Then sign up for the free BETA test of SmarterMail 6.x today. The trial add-ons can be activated from within the software during the BETA period. For more information about SmarterTools’ BETA program, please refer to the BETA Release FAQs.