1. Initial/ongoing cost (hardware, software) plus administrative costs (labor)

Be sure to include all initial purchase costs, on-going maintenance fees, and estimated hours to be spent each week/month to keep products up to date and operational when comparing in-house products with a managed service such as Postini.

2. Size and complexity of your organization needs

Larger organizations may actually benefit more from a managed service solution that is platform/email system neutral, and able to perform regardless of your IT environment complexity. Adding users is a small incremental cost with a managed service like Postini, avoiding larger investments required when increasing the capacity of server/gateway appliance or software products.

3. Cost of additional IT infrastructure changes

Will an in-house server/gateway appliance or software require you to "rip and replace" any existing IT network infrastructure. What changes in existing processes or workflow might be necessary? Managed services like Postini have no impact or affect on existing IT infrastructures.

4. Level of experience with email filtering/processing technology

The more experience a vendor has in processing email messages, the greater the likelihood the vendor will be able to identify and prevent the latest attacks and threats to your email system. Postini processes more than a billion messages every week for more than 3,000 customers in all types of industries.

5. Scope of threat detection technology

Only Postini offers email security and management at three critical levels: Connection Management, Content Security and Delivery Assurance.

6. Management visibility and reporting

Assess the management capability and types of reports available with any email security solution. Postini offers a wide range of real time reports and trend analysis.

7. Flexibility for administrators and end users

Administrators should be able to delegate functions to user groups or individual users to allow for quarantined email review to avoid missing any messages. Most software and service vendors can only operate from a "one size fits all" perspective.

8. Ease of use and time to value

A managed service such as Postini can be running in a few hours, requiring only an MX redirect. Compare with installation and deployment times required of server/gateway appliances or software.

9. Quality and scope of customer support

Postini's provides support services including toll-free 24/7 phone support, self-paced training, and a convenient online Management Console Guide with a searchable index. Customer surveys indicate 95% of Postini customers were extremely satisfied with Postini's support team knowledge and professionalism, documentation and response time.

10. Vendor experience, focus and financial stability

Since 1999 Postini has been protecting email systems from spam and threats. It is one of the fastest growing email security companies in the world.

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