7 Things to Look for When Choosing an Email Security Solution

Email is among the most important means of communication for a company, so it must be protected, yet easily retrievable. This is an easy service for managed services provider (MSPs) to offer, and it can help protect their customers and boost revenue.

Here are seven things to consider when reviewing an email security platform.

1. Strong filtering accuracy

As SMBs increasingly approach MSPs to manage their security, MSPs are on the lookout for powerful email security solutions that keep resources spent on managing email environments and mitigating malware to the minimum. It is critical an email security solution has good filtering accuracy to protect inboxes against cyberthreats, and also to prevent false positives.

2. Antiphishing protection

Phishing attacks—including spear phishing, impersonation, spoofing, and business email compromise—have become popular email threats, with 93% of data breaches starting with a phishing email, according to Verizon. They may look like legitimate emails from banks, web services providers, or other organizations, but are designed to trick people into sharing personal information (like login credentials) or downloading malware (as seen in our previous blog: “What Does a Phishing Campaign Look Like?”).

When choosing your solution, be careful: many vendors offer antiphishing as a separate service from their email protection and charge extra. Cost-wise it adds value for MSPs to roll out an email security solution that has antiphishing functionalities and services included by default.

3. 24/7 built-in email continuity

Email server outages or downtime can lead to business interruptions, costing MSPs and their customers time and potentially lost business. We believe email continuity defines an email security solution and it should be a standard feature within an email protection solution. This allows MSPs to maximize on service value and revenue without having to accommodate an extra cost for this feature.

4. Robust encrypted email archiving

Too often, SMBs lose access to important email communications. They may also be bound by regulatory compliance requirements that stipulate how long they must keep all their email correspondence. This means email storage can take up a huge amount of space. So, what is an email security offering without the option to add secure data storage and archiving facilities? It is important to look out for archiving solutions that include encryption to help keep data secure, and solutions that offer the flexibility of choosing a retention period to fit individual customer needs.

5/ Seamless integration with Office 365

Adoption rates of Office 365 continue to grow as more and more SMBs choose to use their cloud-based solutions. While it’s true Office 365 comes with built-in security, the email collaboration tool’s size and visibility make it a high-value target for cybercriminals. Adding another layer of security to Office 365 significantly mitigates the risk of falling victim to cyberthreats. You should choose a solution that easily integrates with Office 365 for efficiency and control.

6/ Visibility and control over email

With email being such an important part of daily business, users want greater control and visibility over their email flows. This can be achieved with email security solutions that have good reporting tools, quarantine management, and visibility over email flows for each user type (e.g. from MSPs to end users).

7/ Affordability

Finally, MSPs are challenged to offer reliable, powerful, and professional email security at an affordable price. Lower costs allow MSPs to increase their margins, which in turn helps them grow their businesses and expand their footprint. Why? Lower costs allow MSPs to increase their adoption rate with customers and offer more comprehensive protection, ultimately leading to increased revenue opportunities.

Help with building MSP businesses

As an MSP, it helps to use strategies that have been tested by other MSPs around the world. You should look to collaborate with vendors that provide tools and resources for MSPs to succeed and grow their businesses.

What does SolarWinds offer?

Many MSPs rely on SolarWinds^® Mail Assure to protect their customers from email-related threats. SolarWinds Mail Assure is a cloud-based email security solution that offers all the above plus more—at an affordable price.

Proprietary inbound filtering technology incorporates data from over 2 million domains under management, with a nearly 100% accuracy rate. Leveraging a variety of filtering technologies, the solution includes protection against phishing attacks and built-in email continuity by default. Multiple storage locations around the world enable MSPs to offer support for regional data storage to help meet customer’s geographic storage requirements. Plus, an easy-to-install Office 365 add-in—available at the Microsoft AppSource store—provides seamless integration with Mail Assure, also giving Office 365 users greater control and transparency over their email flow.

Finally, SolarWinds customers have access to multiple resources and content via the MSP institute. Videos, webinars, podcasts, and other content containing practical advice are available to help MSPs succeed and generate revenue from selling products like email security.

If you are looking to protect email against spam, viruses, malware, ransomware, phishing attacks, and other email-borne threats, start a trial with SolarWinds Mail Assure today and see how we can help keep your inboxes clean.

By Mia Thompson

Mia Thompson is product marketing manager, Mail Assure at SolarWinds MSP.