Avira improves email security with its managed cloud service

Tettnang, 4 October 2010 – As part of its Avira Managed Security Service product line, IT security company Avira presents a new "in-the-cloud" service package for small and medium-sized businesses called Avira Managed Email Security (AMES). This new packages offers users safety from the cloud by filtering emails and scanning for viruses long before they reach the company server or local network. Corrupted emails and spam are immediately quarantined, which helps to keep companies safe from harm.

AMES works off of Avira-owned data processing centers, which means that users don’t have to invest in new software or additional hardware. Because Avira offers a complete hosting and maintenance service for the AMES solution, companies do not have to deal with spam nor waste valuable time on administrative activities. In addition, they can also benefit from a reliable security solution that is always up to speed because Avira constantly updates the AMES cloud to ensure comprehensive protection against malware.

"On average, over 90 percent of all emails are spam! In addition to the security threat posed by viruses, spam also affects companies in many other ways. For example, spam unnecessarily limits bandwidth and server capacities, it creates additional costs, and also reduces productivity due to the time staff have to spend dealing with it," says Patrick van der Valk, Avira Chief Strategic Operations Officer.
"AMES completes the Avira portfolio of server, desktop and gateway solutions with a fully managed cloud service and brings small and medium sized businesses one step closer to an integrated security concept. But that’s not all, it also improves performance and cuts costs because it reduces the burden on staff and infrastructure Managed solutions from the data cloud offer companies a higher level of security, which Avira plans to constantly improve with the help of additional managed security services. For example, we are planning to launch our archiving component at the beginning of 2011."

Easy integration, comprehensive control

By redirecting the company domain name as a cloud solution, Avira Managed Email Security acts as a veritable security buffer for the company network. Avira Managed Email Security scans all incoming, and – depending on the settings – outgoing emails for spam and viruses, it then forwards safe messages to the company’s mail server. If the mail server is offline, messages are kept in the cloud and forwarded as soon as possible. Blocked emails are kept away from the company and saved in the AMES cloud’s quarantine area. Users receive email notification about the blocked content.

Thanks to its intuitive user platform MyAccount.avira.com, Avira provides access to isolated messages and full control over the system (including detailed filter rules). It allows user rights and settings, which range from administrator rights to group and individual settings, to be defined. This enables certain categories of emails, contents or attachments to be blocked or unblocked manually. Also, Avira MyAccount platform can modify stringent filter and scanner settings. Support is available from the German-speaking Avira support center.

Reliable security solutions

In order to provide reliable protection against spam, viruses and other threats, AMES relies on internally developed technologies, such as the heuristic ProTAG scanner and the HICAR module used to scan images. Combined with traditional Avira Antivirus technology, these are reliable tools for malware detection. The heuristic ProTAG scanner, in particular, identifies new viruses faster than conventional methods. ProTAG scans the email traffic for patterns and behaviors that may indicate malware. That’s how AMES is able to detect infected emails long before a new virus update is available for locally installed antivirus software.

Investment & Availability

Avira Managed Email Security is already available from authorized Avira Channel Partners. Licensing depends on the number of users and is provided for 5 users or more. Available contract terms are 12, 24 and 36 months.
As an example, the cost for 250 users is € 21 per license for one year or roughly € 50 for a three year contract. This helps small businesses with 50 or less users to benefit from comprehensive AMES protection with an annual investment of only € 1,100.
There are no installation fees. All prices are net prices and do not include VAT.