Tumbleweed Secure Messenger 6.3 consists of two products: the Secure Messenger and the Email Firewall. Both products work together to form an enterprise-class content and identity filtering solution. The solution helps make automated and policy-based decisions on how to secure message delivery that is very transparent to the users. The solution includes encryption, anti-spam, anti-virus and various other capabilities.
The product is sold either as an appliance or as a software solution installed on a Windows 2003 host using a Microsoft SQL server backend. Our testing included the software solution, and the components installed very easily on our Windows 2003 test machine. All of the core components of Secure Messenger can be up and running fairly easily. The administrative interface is truly enterprise-class and supports the use of integrated LDAP authentication and role-based access control. To give users an additional layer of control over encryption at the client level requires the installation of an additional host.
We found that the solution performed very well. Default policies right out of the box can help significantly improve the security posture of both outbound and inbound emails. Powerful content and identity filtering capabilities and a multitude of standards-based encryption options will help support most organizations’ administrative and policy needs. Policy creation and enforcement is easy to accomplish, and both web-based secure messaging delivery and local client encryption capabilities are available. Digital signatures are supported using S/MIME at the gateway. For this, recipients will need a S/MIME compatible client. Larger Webmail-based services do not support S/MIME because of the network overhead required.
Documentation is contained in several useful PDF files. Multiple levels of support are offered. Gold level support (8/5) is included in the bundled pricing. The company’s support portal site is top notch.
Pricing for the Tumbleweed Secure Messenger 6.3 starts at $11,000 and represents a fantastic value given the feature set. Organizations will be glad to see transparent encryption capabilities, user-driven encryption options and content filtering all in one solution.
The product is sold either as an appliance or as a software solution installed on a Windows 2003 host using a Microsoft SQL server backend. Our testing included the software solution, and the components installed very easily on our Windows 2003 test machine. All of the core components of Secure Messenger can be up and running fairly easily. The administrative interface is truly enterprise-class and supports the use of integrated LDAP authentication and role-based access control. To give users an additional layer of control over encryption at the client level requires the installation of an additional host.
We found that the solution performed very well. Default policies right out of the box can help significantly improve the security posture of both outbound and inbound emails. Powerful content and identity filtering capabilities and a multitude of standards-based encryption options will help support most organizations’ administrative and policy needs. Policy creation and enforcement is easy to accomplish, and both web-based secure messaging delivery and local client encryption capabilities are available. Digital signatures are supported using S/MIME at the gateway. For this, recipients will need a S/MIME compatible client. Larger Webmail-based services do not support S/MIME because of the network overhead required.
Documentation is contained in several useful PDF files. Multiple levels of support are offered. Gold level support (8/5) is included in the bundled pricing. The company’s support portal site is top notch.
Pricing for the Tumbleweed Secure Messenger 6.3 starts at $11,000 and represents a fantastic value given the feature set. Organizations will be glad to see transparent encryption capabilities, user-driven encryption options and content filtering all in one solution.
