In the US, the relentless flow of spam is so distressing to Internet users that many of them have become disillusioned to the point of curtailing their online usage.
South African users are no strangers to spam. According to Internet Solutions` (IS) Ian Isenberg, they estimate that 46% of all Internet traffic is e-mail, and a large portion of that is spam - most of which originates from outside the country. The costs in terms of bandwidth use and productivity loss are almost immeasurable, but now there`s some relief in sight with a new service from IS.
"Having recognised our own, internal need to can as much spam as possible, and applying this to our customers` needs, we went in search of the best anti-spam filters available," says Isenberg, Network Solutions Business Unit Manager at IS. "Spam filters abound, but we wanted something that would be enterprise-class and almost infallible, and deliver business and mission-critical solutions. At the same time we identified the need to provide a best of breed solution to our corporate customers.
"IS AntiSpam has a unique approach to spam," says Isenberg. "The solution has been engineered for high reliability and availability. As such it uses off the shelf components, such as Brightmail, but additional, significant development enables user management and reporting. Using an ASP model to deliver the solution allows us to offer our customers economies of scale as well as the high level of service they are used to from IS. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee per user per month, this solution can reduce spam by in excess of 90% and thus free up bandwidth for other uses. The savings will be significant."
Brightmail is the world leader in anti-spam technology and currently filters 100 billion e-mails a month, blocks two billion spams a day and looks after 300 million e-mail boxes the world over. Brightmail also has a proven industry-leading false positive - messages incorrectly identified as spam - rate of fewer than one false positive in every one million messages identified as spam. "With this solution IS are also optimising client bandwidth usage, a precious commodity in SA," says Craig Copeland from Networks Unlimited, the joint distributor of Brightmail in Africa.
"The solution developed by IS makes maximum use of attributes that have enabled Brightmail to become the world leader in fighting spam. Brightmail catches the most spam, accurately and with zero administration," stated Philip Arnold of joint distributor Securicom, who emphasised what a pleasure it had been to work with the IS technical team.
"We are delighted to bring this world-leading solution to our customers at such an affordable cost," says Isenberg. "Spam needs to be eradicated - this solution goes a very long way to achieving that."
The IS AntiSpam service, powered by Brightmail, is available immediately from IS.
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Internet Solutions (IS) has transformed its business model and become the only full network service provider in the country.
The business was founded on the principle of developing a robust infrastructure in order for corporates to conduct e-business. Over the past decade IS has established itself as a leader in this space, attracting over 80% of SA`s top businesses as clients.
During its 10 year life span, IS has evolved and grown its service offerings. Today, the company is the leading hosting service provider and security service provider in SA, as well as having significant market share in the virtual private network (VPN) and application service provider (ASP) space.
Internet Solutions has earned an impressive collection of accolades, including eight First National Bank "Most Admired" awards, Financial Mail Best Company to Work For and a place in the Top Unlisted Company Awards.
The company partners with major players such as Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle BT and AT&T and in 2002 was certified as a Cisco Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), the first and only company outside of the US to be awarded this accolade.
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