In-Depth

Symantec Announces Security Enhancement Tools for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Symantec Corp. is first out of the gate to announce companion products to Microsoft’s updated Exchange Server 2007

• By James E. Powell
• 12/05/2006

While Microsoft’s introduction of Vista and Office 2007 claimed center stage last week (see http://esj.com/newswire/article.aspx?EditorialsID=2314), the company also took the opportunity to officially announce Exchange Server 2007. Promising "anywhere access" to e-mail, voice mail, faxes, and calendaring from an integrated inbox, the company says the new version will ensure security with built-in antivirus and anti-spam protection, plus disaster recovery capabilities. On its Web site, Microsoft says of Exchange Server 2007: “Encryption and rights management features help maintain the confidentiality of messages, limit unwanted distribution of documents, and instill confidence in every communication. In addition, Exchange Server 2007 offers sophisticated search, message retention, and archiving capabilities that enable your organization's compliance initiatives.”

Symantec is hoping that won’t be sufficient for the enterprise. Beyond the typical “we’re committed to our customers” statements by both Microsoft and Symantec issued in a press release, the Cupertino, CA-based company said its Enterprise Messaging Management solutions—Enterprise Vault and Mail Security 8300 Series—would improve the security and manageability of Exchange Server 2007 in three distinct ways:

1. Greater efficiency: Their products will handle the big-three mail-related security tasks: block spam (using more than 20 techniques so the messages don’t enter the gateway), eliminate viruses, and archive e-mail to second-tier storage (while providing seamless access to archived messages).



2. Easier migration: Enterprise Vault lets an enterprise “proactively archive a large percentage of mailbox content prior to migration, leaving only the small amount of ‘live’ mailbox data to be migrated. This helps ease the overall migration process while maintaining messaging service levels.”



3. Protection from data leaks: The company says that the pair of products will enforce message retention and confidentiality policies. Symantec Mail Security 8300 Series uses content-control modules to protect confidential corporate data and, according to a press release, uses “a flexible framework for analyzing e-mail in transit (properties, content, etc.), which allows the solution to make ‘intelligent’ archiving decisions, such as block, quarantine, journal, tag, warn, etc., based on the content of the message.”

Besides integrating anti-spam, antivirus, and content filtering, Symantec Mail Security 8300 Series tackles compliance issues and internal corporate policies related to e-mail content. Symantec is offering a new Premium Content Control add-on subscription to extend content filtering capabilities so organizations can mitigate risks associated with data leakage and comply with industry regulations such as HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and Sarbanes-Oxley.

Symantec Enterprise Vault extends some of the new capabilities around storage management and compliance that are already a part of the new Exchange Server 2007, such as the ability to simplify integration of legacy PST data from laptops, desktops, and servers.

Pricing and availability of the Symantec products were not available at press time.