VIRTELA LAUNCHES WORLDWIDE MANAGED MAIL DEFENSE SERVICE.

Virtela Communications, Inc., a provider of global managed IP virtual private network (VPN) services, has launched a fully-managed solution targeted at the growing email protection needs of enterprises -- Virtela Managed Mail Defense.

"With our Managed Mail Defense service, we are providing customers with yet another way to increase their network efficiency and performance while decreasing their costs, liabilities and risks," said Ian Dix, Virtela senior vice president, marketing. "Combining this new offering with our managed IP VPN service creates the ultimate single-source solution for enterprises looking for enhanced security, reliability and performance across their global application infrastructures."

Virtela's Managed Mail Defense service provides proactive real-time monitoring and analysis of incoming and outgoing email threats -- protecting the enterprise from spam, viruses, undesirable content and SMTP-based attacks. The solution utilizes four different spam filtering techniques and updates black lists and white lists to ensure 98.5% success in spam filtering with a minimum of false positives. Virtela Managed Mail Defense also provides customers with up to two advanced anti-virus software engines that incorporate proactive updates every five minutes for ongoing, real-time protection from the latest viruses. As a proactive, managed service Virtela Managed Mail Defense eliminates the time burden placed on IT staffs implementing and managing solutions in-house.

"With the cost of a single virus outbreak estimated to fall between $100,000-$1,000,000, enterprises are looking for the silver bullet solution for email protection," said Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group's vice president of Enterprise Infrastructure. "A managed service such as Virtela's Managed Mail Defense is attractive for many organizations where the day-to-day fight against spam and viruses is a resource drain that will only get worse. The added-value of quarantining spam and other inappropriate content off of the enterprises' infrastructure further enhances the appeal of this solution."

Undetectable to end users, Virtela Managed Mail Defense intercepts and analyzes email outside of the corporate firewall in comparison to traditional solutions that store spam and viruses on corporate servers. By analyzing and then as appropriate quarantining and blocking before email enters the internal network, Virtela is able to help customers reduce their email management, infrastructure and storage costs in addition to further protecting resources.

Dix continued, "Keeping up with the latest spam tactics and virus mutations is very time consuming for IT managers and requires a specialized skill set. Virtela's solution provides proactive updates and 24 X 7 expert support through our Security Operations Center to ensure that our customer's systems remain protected."