Where art thou, Lotus Protector? I need thy protection…

In the past couple of months I’ve rolled out three new Domino messaging infrastructures, all of which use Domino 8’s in-built Spam protection.  Initially all was well, but now all three are beginning to be hit by significant quantities of spam, and the odd message or ten is getting through.

So what next?  Do we implement a Domino anti-spam plug-in (such as Trend MailScan) to get rid of messages once they’re in the system, use a mail gateway appliance (such as a Barracuda or similar) or O/S solution such as SpamAssassin to block the mail before it hits Domino, or else buy in a hosted service from elsewhere (even IBM’s own IGS offering)?

Undoubtedly there is a need, and there are plenty of solutions out there…  

However, I’m a yellow-bleeder -breather and so want to use the Lotus solution if possible.  So what is that?  Yes, Lotus Protector.

Well, it will be…  And according to this banner:

It will be available sometime in 2008.  That’s great, Lotus, but well that’s potentially a 9-month window….

The Lotus Protector product page is ok – it has some useful info:

Lotus Protector offerings are designed to deliver best-of-breed technology in a way that’s easier to purchase and deploy than competitive offerings, and over time will deliver the benefits of a single-source, integrated family of offerings. Customers will benefit from a Lotus-supplied, Lotus-backed platform of best-in-breed security solutions, designed on a unified experience for users and administrators.

The initial offering of Lotus Protector software will include the capabilities of IBM Proventia Network Mail Security System software. In 2007, SC Magazine rated Proventia Network Mail Security software as “Recommended”. IBM plans to broaden the Lotus Protector software suite over time to include the rest of the Lotus collaboration portfolio.

But unfortunately, very little in the way of accurate factual information about the product.  It also hasn’t been updated since Lotusphere – a full 3 months ago.  There has been no product announcement thus far either…  In fact the best info I’ve been able to find anywhere is from a 3rd party – Chris Miller’s excellent podcast on the Protector product.

So IBM/Lotus… Can we have some info please?  I see this as being a very popular product in the next 12-18months,  There is definitely a need, IBM/Lotus partners have been looking for a yellow-badges solution like this for many years, and priced correctly I am sure that customers will buy into the idea.  However, please give us some more to go on!

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