The product safeguards enterprises from malicious email and instant messages without the need for software installations, hardware deployments or on-site configuration. Readers lauded the product's uptime, noting that outages were kept to a minimum. The on-demand model results in cost savings, and it's headache free, says Sundar Raghavan, Postini vice president of solutions marketing.

"You can manage policies in one central location in a Web browser with a check of a box," Raghavan says. "Once a link is established with our customers, we track all email and IM messages in real time and they're archived in our world-class data centers."

The company started in 1999 and quickly gained momentum around its on-demand model for secure email, archiving and spam-blocking features. Perimeter Manager blocks spam, viruses and phishing attacks. The platform provides filtering, multiple redundant layers of threat protection, and administrative controls to manage messages and enforce policy.

Archiving also helps companies meet more stringent federal discovery rules around electronic data, Raghavan says. The new rules, which went into effect Dec. 1, require companies to keep track of email, instant messages, BlackBerry messages and other electronic data that could become relevant to a federal court case.

Postini's archiving system gives employees a personal archive, which provides access to email and IM chat searching. Searching also extends to file attachments that may have been exchanged, Raghavan says.

More Postini customers are also choosing to add Perimeter Manager instant messaging security features to their lineup. The IM extension stops IM-borne worms, viruses and spim from reaching the network. Administrators can also set IM access policies, control outbound IM file transfers, filter conversations for inappropriate or sensitive content, and archive instant message sessions for searching and retrieval. The software uses integrated filters from Symantec to filter spam and spim and block malicious URLs. Perimeter Manager is also automatically updated every minute, without interaction from IT staff. In addition to IM, Raghavan sees VoIP and video conferencing security to be in Postini's future product set.