Security solutions provider WatchGuard Technologies rolled out a new family of extensible content security solutions this month aimed specifically at SMBs.
The new appliances fall under the umbrella of the WatchGuard XCS platform, and they provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, spyware and malware, as well as “always on” e-mail security and full-featured, centralized management and reporting.
“SMBs stand at the crossroads of being the most at risk to an e-mail based threat, and yet, the most challenged to have state of the art e-mail and spam protection,” says Bryan Nairn, senior product manager at WatchGuard Technologies. “Until now, these businesses had few options for spam and malware protection. With WatchGuard, they can have a no compromise, fully featured messaging protection solution at an affordable price point.”
The WatchGuard family of XCS appliances for SMBs consists of the WatchGuard XCS 170, the XCS 370, and the XCS 570 series. All of these appliances come with the WatchGuard e-mail security suite, which provides protection against spam, phishing, viruses, malware, and other forms of e-mail based threats. Additionally, they all sport advanced management and reporting capabilities, which include archiving, on-box reporting, messaging logs, customizable granular policies and reports, TLS encryption, and message redundancy.
All of the WatchGuard XCS appliances take advantage of WatchGuard’s in-the-cloud security technology, ReputationAuthority. According to WatchGuard, ReputationAuthority eliminates up to 98.3 percent of spam e-mail before it ever gets to a small business network by use of DNS blacklists, IP traffic volume, behavior analysis, and content inspection.
“Given that spam e-mail is a major carrier of viruses, phishing, and blended threats,” a recent press release from the security provider states, “having ReputationAuthority pre-screen and eliminate this unwanted traffic makes networks, applications, and data better protected as part of WatchGuard’s defense-in-depth architecture.
The WatchGuard XCS series of appliances will be available worldwide from WatchGuard channel partners before the end of November 2009, the company says.
The WatchGuard XCS 170 starts at $2,475, the WatchGuard XCS 370 is $5,500, and the WatchGuard XCS 570 is $8,500; all have no per user license fees.
