I've never used Barracuda's anti-spam firewall. I have, however, recently implemented a front-end mail server called ESVA (see www.global-domination.org/ESVA.php). We actually downloaded the pre-built virtual machine from VMWare's website (www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/542) and are running it under VMWare Server.
Re: Spam filter costs lawyers their day in court.
Granted, this solution might require a little linux know-how to get it up and running, but the benefits are tremendous. Besides greylisting and the ability to set up recipient filtering, e-mails that get a spam score in a certain range will cause an e-mail to be sent to the recipient. If the score is on the lower end of spamminess, the user gets the e-mail anyway, but with a link to report it as spam so SpamAssassin can learn. If the score is on the higher end of the range, the user gets a notice that the message was blocked and is given a link to click on to release it and teach SpamAssassin that it was ham.
Oh, and did I mention that ESVA uses ClamAV to scan for viruses?
For what it costs to buy a Barracuda Spam Firewall, you could buy a dedicated front-end server for ESVA, hire a linux guru to get it up and going, and pocket the savings. Granted, this would not necessarily be an enterprise-grade highly scalable solution, but for someone like a law firm--more than adequate. Also, the Barracuda Spam Firewall may have some features ESVA doesn't, but it lacks greylisting, which is IMHO, absolutely essential in the war on spam.
Barracuda vs ESVA
I have worked for a reseller for 13 years. I am the IT Manager. We partner with companies like Barracuda, Symantec, Cisco, HP, Microsoft, etc. Our company has over 600 employees and we receive approximately 140,000 (one hundred forty thousand) emails per day of which 93% are spam.
I have used Brightmail, SurfControl, MailFrontier, Tumbleweed, Spam Assassin, etc. I have also used Barracuda which is our current solution. Been using Barracuda for 1-1/2 years.
I can tell you - Hands Down - Absolutely No Question - Barracuda is the best! Our users LOVE it. Our sales reps sell the hell out of it.
Barracuda is So Sure of their product that they offer free trials. It's true. They figure that if they get a unit into your location for you to try, you'll love the effectiveness of their product and will keep it. Barracuda Rarely receives back a trial unit.
OK - It sounds like I work for Barracuda - But I do Not. I simply use it and love it. And the cost? Far less that Any other enterprise solution. Not free like ESVA - But you will not find a better product.
I've given my real email address in case you would like to contact me. No I am not a sales person!
email: terry at brothersfamily dot net
Thanks,
Terry
Barracuda vs ESVA
BTW - I forgot to mention that I found this post while searching for information on ESVA. I've downloaded the ESVA virtual machine for use in my home. While Barracuda is a great enterprise solution it is not economical for the home user.
Thanks,
Terry
Barracuda vs ESVA
Being consultants for various large Resorts in the Florida Panhandle area, we are always looking for cost effective and beneficial solutions to provide our clients IT needs. With Spam a never ending battle, we decided to try out ESVA and to say we were impressed would be an understatement.
We utilized the ESVA VM Machine and with minimum setup, ESVA was operational. Once the kinks were ironed out which were very few, we put a unit into production. The results were very impressive and effectively reduced the Spam over 30% over a leading vendor. I am presently building another unit to use in our HQ as we provide Filtering Services to many of our clients and look forward to ESVA Version 2 which is built on the Ubuntu platform.
By the way, Barracuda has yet to contact us about an Evaluation Unit after submitting a request!!
Barracuda vs EVSA
I too have used Barracuda and EVSA. I work at an ASP that hosts mail and we were an early customer of Barracuda. We have decommissioned our SPAM Firewalls, after melting down 3 in a year, endless issues with quarantines, and MTAs. My Engineers used to spend 2-3 days per week working on 'cuda related issues. The nail in the coffin was a call I had with the VP of Engineering. When you know what they consider a "stable" release of an upgrade, you will run away. They hide experimental MTA's in bug fixes, they deploy features arbitratily, and only recently figured out how to really "cluster" the boxes...there is just a lack of engineering discipline. Those large customers that they talk about? They won't move past there currently firmware versions...just too iffy. And a quick chat with anyone that knows spam assasin, can tell you that the number claims come wiht a lot of fine print.
I know more people leaving 'cuda than deploying. As for EVSA, after using EVSA, and seeing what many ISP's pass off as enterprise (qmail, though solid, is basically latin...) I would say that with a linux contractor, you could easily build an enterprise scale and have the flexibility to add/remove what you need, and the cash to train your folks on how to use and maintain it.
ESVA v2
I am the developer of the ESVA virtual appliance.
I'm pleased to see the comments above comparing the previous version to Barracuda, however now that the new version is available (v2.0) I think that the Barracuda might be running scared. Improvements included in the latest version are:
- Far simpler setup
- Integrated update mechanism
- Improved accuracy and detection rates
- Higher performance (compared to v1.x)
The forthcoming 2.1 release will feature:
- Active-Active clustering (shared nothing)
- Improved web UI
- Even better performance
- Hyper-V support
In response to questions regarding whether ESVA is ready for the big-time, you might be surprised how many ISPs use ESVA to filter their ustomer's mail, and anecdotal evidence suggests that ESVA is on a par in terms of accuracy/detection with the much larger and more expensive Mailcontrol/Messagelabs.
ESVA is a free download from http://www.global-domination.org/ESVA.php and is actively supported by the ESVA community at http://www.global-domination.org/forum
Give it a try - you have nothing to lose!
-Andy
ESVA2
Could not agree more with Andy. I've used several filter, CUDA, ESAFE, and now I'm an adept of ESVA.Is really simple to use and mantain, and the version 1.7 on prod, is chugging a lot a mail without choking up. Also the v2.0 is already on my VM and on test to replace the 1.7. I was about to do a HA of 2 ESVA, but since the 2.1 will be including clustering, for sure I'll be waiting for it.
Like always NICE JOB Andy !!!
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