Review: Tumbleweed Secure Messenger 6.3

For: Highly comprehensive feature set with a robust policy engine. Against: None that we found. Verdict: Quick out of the gate, this easy to manage device is well worth your attention. We select this product as our Recommended of the month.

This product not only filters spam and protects from viruses, but it also can protect the whole mail system from being overwhelmed by botnet, directory harvest or denial-of-service attacks.

These features are all part of Tumbleweed’s Intelligent Edge Defense System. Also included, a solid content filter protects from accidental data leakage.

This product is easy to deploy and manage. Setup takes just minutes and is done via the web-based setup wizard. This wizard quickly guides users through the initial setup steps, including licensing, and network and domain configuration.

After the wizard is complete, the MailGate appliance is ready for use. Administration is done through the web-based GUI. This GUI is well organised and has an intuitive navigation feel.

Policies are created and managed by using Policy Manager, the system’s policy engine. The appliance comes with some pre-defined policies already in place, which provide a good start to further customisation and policy building.

The appliance supports over 300 attachment types, keywords, patterns, wildcards, visible and hidden content in documents and multiple default dictionaries.

Three main PDF manuals make up the documentation. First is a quick-start guide, which briefly details how to set the initial configuration for accessing the setup wizard.

Second is the setup guide. This short guide details the setup wizard and initial configuration procedure.

Finally is the administrator guide. This provides in-depth detail of policy configuration and use of the features. All manuals are clear, well organised and include many visuals.

Tumbleweed offers three support levels: gold, platinum and platinum plus, or the technical account management program, which includes a dedicated support consultant.

All these levels provide various types of phone and email support, as well as access to the Tumbleweed support portal, which includes an extensive knowledge base.

With a price of US$8,000, this is a good value for the money. The MailGate offers a lot of punch in a very easy-to-manage appliance, even though the price is toward the high end of the scale.

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