Businesses of all sizes need to be concerned about the deluge of spam that bombards their email systems on a daily basis. Internet technology resources, however, are finite, making it important that business owners purchase the proper corporate spam filter for their needs. Decision-makers must consider certain characteristics of the corporate spam filter, such as its ease of use, the the advanced nature of its security measures and its success rate.
One of the more popular corporate spam filter solutions is hardware that acts as a content filter for the exchange server. These kinds of hardware are known as anti-spam appliances, and one of their benefits is that they are platform agnostic, meaning they work with any of the operating systems that businesses use. It is also generally believed that it is easier to know the specifications of junk mail hardware than to find the bugs in anti-spam software. Hardware can also be easier to install than software.
Benefits aside, business owners still have serious questions to consider when deciding which corporate spam filter suits their needs best. For instance, though anti-spam appliances are easier to install than software, different appliances are easier to use than others. Some filter appliances can have more involved installation processes.
Other things to consider are whether the anti-spam filter allows for content-based filtering, as well as whether it allows the network administrator to control the filtering policy. With an advanced anti-spam appliance, users will be able to stop malicious code from sneaking into the email system. The appliance should also block spam that comes in through instant messaging programs or through email attachments. Superior corporate spam filters also include measures to stop spy ware and viruses. What's more, a corporate spam filter should also be able to buffer overflow attacks against the mail servers.
When choosing among different anti-spam appliances, anti-spam filters and their various vendors, business owners can also compare various metrics that reveal how powerful the anti-spam filter is. For example, statistics should be available to show the number of emails that can be filtered at any one time through the anti-spam filter. A vendor should also be able to provide a percentage accuracy rate for a corporate spam filter.
Small business owners have one more thing to consider. A business can be too small or not have enough email traffic to warrant investment in anti-spam hardware technology. Despite the benefits of hardware, anti-spam software might still be the most cost-effective solution for the smallest businesses.