The EP Series appliances from PivotStor are stand alone offerings for E-mail management and security in SMB to Enterprise deployments. Driven by a hardened Linux OS, the appliances are deployed at the network gateway (between the firewall and the corporate E-mail server) and combine multiple E-mail-specific features including automated encryption, anti-spam and anti-virus filtering, and E-mail archiving.

Each of the four initially available appliances in the line are themselves powered by the vendor's EP-WARE software suite, which in turn is managed by administrators from the EP-WARE Console (currently a client application, with a browser-based interface planned for later release). As mentioned above, the suite combines multiple E-mail functions, including:

- EP Filter, which applies policy-based anti-virus (Norman Defence) and anti-spam filtering and (if designated) quarantining to messages before they reach the corporate E-mail server for delivery. The anti-virus filtering of the appliances are base licensed for 90-days of use and feature "instant dynamic updates," while the anti-spam capabilities feature fuzzy-learning techniques. Additionally, the vendor's EPC technology allows for the sending of challenge messages to unknown senders, forcing the unknown senders to click through to a provided Internet link and respond to a visual challenge (they must click on a randomly designated location) before their E-mail messages will be allowed through the gateway.

- EP Archive, which automatically saves copies of messages that pass through the gateway and makes them available for searching and/or recovery. Features include single-instance storage of messages and attachments, and keyword searches that can be performed by subject, E-mail body text, attachment name, or attachment contents.

- EP Encrypt, which implements automated PGP/S/MIME-based encryption both of archived messages and, if desired in/outbound messages.

Four models of the EP Series of appliances are initially offered by the vendor, all including dual Gig Ethernet ports and all supporting the use of either internal storage or external SAN/NAS storage for the archives. Performance of the appliances ranges from just over 16,000 E-mails per day in the EP-50 to over 800,000 E-mails per day in the EP-2500+ (a number the includes those messages that are identified as spam).

- The EP-50 is the entry level offering of the group, boasting a single Intel processor, a single 160 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM, and support for up to 50 user accounts. The EP-50 is a "book" sized box.

- The EP-1000 is a 1U short-depth box that is targeted to SMBs and includes a single Intel Xeon 2.0GHz Dual Core processor (upgradeable to two processors), three 500 GB drives, 2 GB of RAM, and support for up to 1,000 user accounts.

- The EP-2500 is also a 1U short-depth box. It is targeted to SMEs and includes a single Intel Xeon 2.33GHz Dual Core processor (upgradeable to two processors), three 750 GB drives, 4 GB of RAM, and support for up to 2,500 user accounts.

- Finally, the EP-2500+ is a 2U appliance targeted to Enterprise deployments. It features a single Intel Xeon 2.4GHz Dual Core processor (upgradeable to two processors), six 1 TB drives (expandable to 12 drives maximum), 8 GB of RAM, and support for up to 50,000 user accounts per node.

All but the EP-50 support paired deployments where the second box is a cold-standby unit to the first. Hot standby deployments are planned for availability in a "future version." Multi-drive versions additionally support RAID protection; RAID 5 on the EP-1000/EP-2500 and RAID 5 plus hot spare on the EP-2500+.

The EP-1000, EP-2500, and EP-2500+ are expected to being shipping in April; the EP-50 is expected to begin shipping in June. Pricing is expected to start just under $1,300.

Contact PivotStor for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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