Tumbleweed Communications Secure Messenger v6.3
Product Rating
Features:
Ease of Use:
Performance:
Documentation:
Support:
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Overall Rating: 
A solid product with a lot of capability. We rate this one recommended.
Secure Messenger and the Email Firewall work together to allow for encryption policy to be set based on words or phrases in subject, body or attachments, and to protect from viruses, spam and phishing. Secure mail is sent out with policy meeting requirements and Secure Messenger sends an email to the recipient with a link to retrieve the secured mail via a web interface.
We found this product to be quite easy to use. The box arrives with Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server already installed. From there, installation of the Email Firewall is a matter of following a few simple wizards. The policy engine on the appliance is also straightforward.
The appliance has a few default policies setup out of the box. Adding custom policies was quick and easy and consisted of just entering some information and checking a couple of boxes. The web interface for this product also is intuitive and easy to navigate with a clean organized layout.
This product performed very nicely throughout our testing. Once we had a couple policies set up, we were sending and receiving encrypted mail with no trouble at all. The mail can be encrypted with both S/MIME and PGP encryption protocols and users can auto enroll themselves to retrieve email.
This product can also integrate itself with Active Directory so it will fit easily into an existing environment.
Documentation for the Secure Messenger is in the form of PDF manuals located directly on the box. These manuals include admin and quick start guides that are organised and easy to follow.
Tumbleweed offers two levels of support. One is gold, which offers support during regular business hours, and the other is platinum, which offers 24/7 support. Email and phone support are available as well as a customer portal.
This product has a cost of $11,000, but there is a lot of functionality built into the price. This device is not only a way of securing email, it also is a way of monitoring, securing and filtering all in one. We find this product to be an excellent value.
Secure Computing Magazine