St Bernard Software launches LivePrism on-demand solutions exclusively for small, mid-size businesses

SecureData, a member of the JSE-listed ERP.com Group and the southern African distributor for St Bernard Software, today announced the availability of the latter's LivePrism, the only hosted e-mail, instant message and Web filtering services designed specifically to address the needs of the SMB market.

The offering also includes on-demand office solutions such as e-mail hosting, shared calendars and secure archiving for mobile collaboration and message continuity.

Leveraging on-demand infrastructure, each LivePrism service is remotely managed and delivered over the Internet, removing the burden of costly hardware installations and sustaining IT management. Deployment is further simplified through automatic provisioning, giving SMBs access to the power of enterprise-class solutions, but with the flexibility to pick and choose services and scale as business requirements dictate.

LivePrism services use St Bernard's Global Gateway to monitor traffic, isolating viruses, malware, spam and file sharing at the network perimeter, before exploits occur or bandwidth can be consumed. Residing 'in the cloud', LivePrism offerings are always on and can be accessed anywhere - centrally or remotely. Secure archiving provides additional assurance that data is preserved and can be easily retrieved to meet ever-changing compliance regulations.

"SMBs face a tough challenge in that they often do not have adequate time or resources to properly address network security, continuity and collaboration," commented Vince Rossi, president and CEO of St Bernard Software.

"To make matters worse, smaller businesses often do not get their fair share of attention from traditional security vendors who inevitably put their resources behind enterprise customers. St Bernard's LivePrism addresses this problem by offering SMBs cost-effective hosted offerings that can easily integrate into existing environments and meet their unique needs."

"It's a common misconception that SMBs are not targets for security threats like virus, malware and phishing attacks. However, the reality is that hackers know security is often put on the back burner, making their networks extremely susceptible to attack," added Matt Anderson, analyst at The Radicati Group.

"Hosted services are an ideal fit, as they provide this underserved market with exactly the services they need, allowing them to maximise IT resources for other business-focused projects."

St Bernard LivePrism includes a broad range of integrated hosted solutions for the SMB, including:

E-mail filtering - offering a range of filters to ensure comprehensive coverage based on an SMB's needs, this service delivers powerful spam protection with St Bernard's proprietary Reputation D technology. Using a multi-step process, messages are cleaned and delivered to the customer within seconds. Features include custom notifications, message routing, quarantine and reporting.

Instant message filtering - in addition to decreased employee productivity, unmonitored IM can be a vehicle for intellectual property to leave an organisation. St Bernard's IM filter allows SMBs to monitor, filter and report on all IM traffic regardless of the protocols used. Additional features include user access control, custom disclaimers and notifications, content filtering and file transfer blocking.

Internet filtering - providing complete and secure Internet access across the entire network, St Bernard's Internet filter can be implemented in minutes and is transparent to users. It effectively enforces acceptable use and security policies, and helps SMBs avoid the legal liability and decreased employee productivity associated with unfiltered Web access. Features include file transfer blocking, custom notifications and a category filter powered by iGuard, St Bernard's 100% human-reviewed URL database.

Hosted Office - empowers SMBs with enterprise-class collaboration and business continuity tools such as e-mail and Web hosting, shared calendars and mobile data synchronisation. St Bernard's Hosted Office solution is also compatible with Microsoft Outlook, and provides secure data archiving and retrieval.

All St Bernard LivePrism solutions offer reporting and integrate a leading virus scanner at the application level, comparing against a library that is updated every 10 minutes to ensure viruses are quickly identified and recorded in the database. The solutions to the customer are delivered through a self-help, self-provisioning e-commerce structure.

For further information, please contact Willem Barnard at telephone (011) 790 2500; fax (011) 790 2599; e-mail willemb@securedata.co.za.