Top Email Security Gateway Services
With the ever-evolving landscape of email security services comes the ‘question’… ‘what are the top email security gateway services’? Our website analytics show that this term is searched for more regularly than most other general searches. A key indicator is that many top email gateway services brands have been tried and tested previously…market research is required to check for innovation – Is there anything you haven’t tried? What might you be missing out on? Can you trust your research or are you being duped by marketing?
Top Email Security Gateway Services
The key contenders and best-of-breed providers are fighting for real-estate globally and with that comes innovation – how do the providers continually stay ahead of one another and add value? Well, let’s start by addressing why there needs to be a value addition – All email security gateway providers will need to innovate to add value over what Microsoft is adding to Office 365 (Defender/ATP) and Google with its Workspace integration (Postini), etc. Both of the leading cloud email environments offer a level of email security protection but as email security gateway services are not the core deliverables, there are issues with granularity (admin and end-user), spam and malicious email detection rates, and overall cost of the service for greater email security features. This gives third-party organizations the opportunity to carve out innovative features to address the demand not currently available with the cloud/hosted email client/service.
Should my Organization use a third-party Email Security Gateway?
If you are relying on Office 365 or Google Workspace with or without their advanced security offering, then you will have some layers of protection in place. If you have not evaluated a top email security gateway service then we would suggest you find time to run a proof-of-concept to understand the value each third-party offers. In most cases adding multiple layers of security is a good idea and with perimeter email security gateways, that is certainly a good decision.
What to look out for…
Compare and Understand the Back-End
Each third-party email security gateway service provider adds its own flavor of features that ‘should’ outperform security features offered by your native email service provider. In many cases we see vendors naming features with the same title but the performance or level of protection provided will be very different.
With any service offering, do your homework and ask questions that will expose the structure of data processing and any sub-processors. Not only is this vitally important information for your organization, but it is also a requirement to collect and share such information in the UK and EU under GDPR. Understandably, comparing data processing agreements (DPA’s) is not as much fun as actually evaluating the services for real so why not hand the paperwork over to your compliance officer for review first. To conclude – no matter where you are located in the World, make the most of the DPA’s and use them to your advantage even if you are not within a GDPR region. Any and all DPA must disclose all processors – a great way to understand the inner workings.
Review or Expert Insight websites…
You may find yourself using or pulling up search results for review websites (Google likes them). Many business owners and entrepreneurs have worked the Google algorithm in their interest by positioning reviews and then re-directing you to ‘further information’ or ‘pricing inquiry’ pages. Any reputable non-profit review website would provide verified ‘unbiased’ customer reviews, not privateer opinion-based feedback. These insight websites usually favor a solution based on the sales margin they will make if you pass a lead forward. You will likely then be contacted by a salesperson from a linked partner (check the company registration information).
A good example of a trusted source is Gartner Peer Insights. Gartner verifies the review through the user’s preferred authentication method, LinkedIn, Google Account, or otherwise (Gartner is very conscious of fake profiles and vet access actively). Steer clear of review or insight websites that do not verify customer reviews or have any independence (non-profit). They are on a clever marketing journey.
Who are the Top Email Security Gateway Providers?
Many of the leading vendors have been around for a very long time and have a wealth of experience. As with most things security – the more you can see, the quicker you are able to pro-actively react to the risk or situation presented. Any new Email Security Gateway providers will find it difficult to compete with best-of-breed services due to the global coverage they have when detecting threats. Any new service providers in the email security gateway space will likely partner with a leader.
The advantages of partnering with a leading best-of-breed provider can certainly add value and focus within a market. Spambrella for example is in direct partnership with Proofpoint to add value to the sales and support process for Global IT Distributors that support and sell the Proofpoint Essentials Service. Spambrella’s sole target market is IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) where we are contracted to develop the Essentials platform, tools and features to better assist support partners with onboarding and supporting their customer estate.
