NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NETWORK PRODUCT TEST RESULTS 12/21/04 Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED],
In this issue: * This time, we tested (almost) everyone * Links related to Network Product Test Results * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91618 _______________________________________________________________ NW'S RESEARCH CENTER ON STORAGE Go to NW Fusion's Research Center for detailed information on enterprise storage. Find the latest breaking news, case studies, white papers, commentary, reviews and more. Topics on how ILM impacts your storage strategy, how to migrate to a new tape drive, how to link SAN islands and more are all found in the Research Center. Click here: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91557 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Spam in the Wild, The Sequel By Joel Snyder How big can a test get? We found out with our latest in-depth look at the anti-spam industry. Spam is still a huge problem, and there is an equally large market opportunity to fix it. We invited every anti-spam vendor in our online Buyer's Guide to participate. While we expected to get eight to 10 vendors to sign up, 41 showed up. We tested them all for spam catch rate (including false-positive and false-negative rates), and performance and throughput. Then we let the products speak for themselves. Out of the 36 that made it through the first round, we felt any product with a greater-than-90% spam catch rate and lower-than-1% false-positive rate should get a more in-depth evaluation. We still ended with a dozen excellent finalists, reflecting the growing maturity and commoditization of anti-spam products. Top spam fighters offer feature diversity For the top of the heap of spam products, it's not what is good or bad that sets them apart. It's more a matter of what's different. http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamanalysis.html?nlr Analyzing the spam test results Digging deeper into the accuracy and performance data. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamcharts.html?nlr> Adventures in spam testing Testing routers and switches is easy. Frames go in, frames come out. With anti-spam products, nothing is ever easy. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamside.html?nlr> Why our numbers work You may notice our numbers are not as optimistic as the marketing literature from vendors' products. There are four reasons for this. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamside5.html?nlr> Where's SpamAssassin? Although a few well-meaning souls volunteered to be the contacts for SpamAssassin, when it came time to test no one would step up to the plate and represent the product at a level that would make it competitive to the other enterprise-focused vendors. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamside6.html?nlr> Buyer's Guide: Anti-spam products A complete buyer's guide of more than 130 anti-spam appliances, software and services. <http://www.nwfusion.com/bg/2003/spam/index.jsp> How we did it The methodology we used to test the various enterprise anti-spam products. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamhow.html?nlr> Pricing and features Pricing and features data for the spam products we tested. (Excel spreadsheet) <http://www.nwfusion.com/nlprodrev923> Who got left out or opted out Our criteria for inviting vendors into our test and who was not selected or turned us down. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamside2.html?nlr> What is a false positive? With spam, suddenly everyone cares about statistics. For the first time, system administrators are buying software that openly admits that it doesn't work all the time. <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamside3.html?nlr> Which comes first, anti-spam or anti-virus? We used an anti-virus scanner to pre-scan messages for viruses and delete them before passing the message onto the anti-spam scanners we were testing. It raised the question - what is a best practice in the enterprise messaging space? <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/122004spamside4.html?nlr> RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS How we did it Network World, 12/13/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/121304revhow.html Anti-spyware buyer's guide Network World Fusion http://www.nwfusion.com/bg/2004/spyware/index.jsp _______________________________________________________________ To contact: For questions or comments regarding this newsletter's content, contact Newsletter Editor Jeff Caruso at mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=91617 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Clear Choice Tests archive: http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE THE EXTENDED ENTERPRISE: NW'S ANNUAL GUIDE Here we analyze the latest tools, techniques and strategies for extending your business reach. Find out how connecting to your business partners is influencing those relationships, how you can make your business partners take security issues as seriously as you do and more. Click here: <http://www.nwfusion.com/ee/2004/?ts> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. Apply today at http://www.subscribenw.com/nl2 International subscribers click here: http://nww1.com/go/circ_promo.html _______________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World e-mail newsletters, go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Changes.aspx> To unsubscribe from promotional e-mail go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Preferences.aspx> To change your e-mail address, go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/ChangeMail.aspx> Subscription questions? Contact Customer Service by replying to this message. This message was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please use this address when modifying your subscription. _______________________________________________________________ Have editorial comments? Write Jeff Caruso, Newsletter Editor, at: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Inquiries to: NL Customer Service, Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 For advertising information, write Kevin Normandeau, V.P. of Online Development, at: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Copyright Network World, Inc., 2004 ------------------------ This message was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
