Dell and Symantec Team for 'Secure Exchange' Solution

Published: September 20, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Symantec and Dell have teamed up to provide Windows shops with an integrated bundle of hardware, software, and services designed to take the pain out of deploying Microsoft Exchange in a secure and reliable way. The bundle, called Secure Exchange, includes Dell servers, storage, and technical services plus security and backup software from Symantec, and starts at about $55,000 for a 500-seat deployment, the companies announced this week.

Venturing out on the Net unprotected from viruses and spam is sort of like walking outside during a rainstorm without an umbrella: You can do it, but you're going to get all wet. Considering our increasingly litigious and regulated society, a similar case could be made for archiving software that automatically tracks and stores e-mail messages for later retrieval (or destruction, as the case may be).

Because of these tremendous needs and the increasingly "mission critical" nature of e-mail, there exists a huge selection of available products. However, navigating these solutions can be a mind-bending exercise. Dell and Symantec are seeking to stop the brain pain by offering a suite of pre-integrated, jointly engineered solutions tailored for organizations with 500 to 2,000 e-mail users. The companies say it's the first reference architecture of its kind.

Secure Exchange is made up of Dell PowerEdge servers and its PowerVault disk arrays, which are designed and manufactured by Dell's OEM partner, EMC. Four Symantec products are available in this package, including its Mail Security 8200 Series and Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange offerings, and its Enterprise Vault and Backup Exec, both of which Symantec obtained from its acquisition of Veritas last year. The joint solution also includes Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 software.

Symantec's Mail Security 8200 Series offerings are rack mountable, Intel Xeon-powered appliances that include its Symantec AntiVirus and BrightMail AntiSpam software. The two appliances in this series also provide identity management and content filtering, and deliver Web-based management interfaces. Symantec's Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange solution also delivers protection from viruses, spam, and inappropriate content, although its more tailored for Exchange environments, whereas the Mail Security 8200 Series also supports Linux, Domino, and Novell NetWare environments.

Symantec's Backup Exec software provides backup and recovery for Windows applications, and it also offers disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) and continuous data protection (CDP) capabilities. Enterprise Vault software is a cross-platform content lifecycle management that's designed to provide "cradle-to-grave" protection for e-mail and other corporate data.

Customers who select Secure Exchange can also have Dell install the solution. Why, you ask, should you entrust a company renown for its PC manufacturing and marketing to implement your new e-mail server? Because, Dell says, it has developed a considerable expertise sizing and implementing Exchange. Much of this experience was gained through the migration of 4 million Exchange and Active Directory mailboxes, including nearly half a million users at one large company alone.

Dell's experience with Exchange and its six-year OEM agreement with Symantec has enabled it to develop a reference architecture for Exchange deployments to get the right mix of CPU, memory, disk, and bandwidth in the right places. Depending on the scalability or performance goals of a customer, Dell may push for the adoption of Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server or Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software into the mix. Secure Exchange customers have a choice of using Storage Area Network (SAN) or direct-attach storage technology.

Dell says this experience has also enabled it to fine tune the Exchange Advisor, which the company describes as a sizing tool that provides step-by-step "blueprints" for deploying the components and maximizing the performance or availability of Exchange environments. For more on Dell's Exchange expertise, read its new "Secure Exchange Architecture" whitepaper, which can be downloaded from www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/conversations/en/2006_09_20?c=us&l=en&s=corp.

Mid size companies aren't doing enough to prepare their e-mail for regulatory compliance, according to Gartner figures cited by both Symantec and Dell. For example, 50 percent of these companies aren't spending enough on compliance activities, such as archiving, Gartner says.

"As email continues to be a critical business application, technology leaders must provide the tools customers need to manage their environments more effectively so that they can concentrate on business growth and customer service," says Jeremy Burton, the group president for the security and data management group at Symantec. "The new offering represents a compelling combination of hardware, software, and services that will help customers take control of their email."

Secure Exchange is available now in the United States and Europe. The list price for a 500-seat implementation starts at $54,678, which includes a PowerEdge 1950s server, PowerVault 110T and M1000 disk arrays, Windows Server 2003, Exchange 2003, and Symantec Backup Exec.

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