PerfectMail
Below is a list of interesting items relating to the PerfectMail project. You'll find
project history, a brief comparison to the Open Source
SpamAssassin project (which forms
the foundation of many of our competitors products), and other interesting facts.
Follow the links below to find out more about
PerfectMail Project History
Released in April, 2005,
PerfectMail Version 3.0 is the result of years of research, development and refinement into
effective anti-spam techniques.
Like others, we started out with simple content scanning. But, as
you will read below, we've progressed far beyond our humble beginnings.
PerfectMail Version 1 (Circa 2000)
We quickly produced version 1.0 of PerfectMail.
This was a moderately effective anti-spam filter based on traditional body scanning
techniques. The product worked and was very fast but was not sufficiently accurate for us to
take to market. Because we were able to achieve accuracy rates of no better than 80%,
we chose to continue development (note that many of our competitors went to market with
anti-spam filters with much lower accuracy rates).
PerfectMail Version 2 (Circa 2003)
We went back to the drawing board to see what we could do to improve PerfectMail's scanning
capabilities. We decided to implement a larger number of reasonableness tests to see if
we could achieve a consensus regarding legitimate vs. unwanted e-mail. As we worked, we
noticed that other anti-spam tools, most notably the open source
SpamAssassin filter were adopting
the same approach.
We decided to try SpamAssassin to see how it behaved. While we generally liked the product,
we noted that:
-
It was programmed in Perl (an interpreted language). While we think Perl is a fantastic
language, our experience has been that interpreted languages suffer performance problems
(due to interpretation overhead) when the program is heavily used. In our view, this would
severely limit the scalability of a SpamAssassin based solution and would keep it out of
large, high volume organizations.
-
SpamAssassin appears to be taking a kitchen sink approach to anti-spam scanning. There
are now so many tests that even a powerful computer can take a number of seconds before
determining the fate of an e-mail.
-
We still didn't see the accuracy we wanted. SpamAssassin is good, but it doesn't go far
enought to ensure that legitimate e-mail is handled properly.
We continued to develop and enhance PerfectMail with select tests (efficiently implemented in
C for speed and scalability). However, by taking the same approach as other vendors, we
achieved good, but not outstanding accuracy. We still couldn't go to market.
PerfectMail Version 3 (2005)
PerfectMail Version 3 is truly a breakthrough. In developing Version 3, we asked ourselves
very fundamental questions about what organizations need in an e-mail security solution. The
questions we asked and their answers can be found
here.
Once we established our new objectives, we started to work to achieve each and every goal.
We significantly enhanced PerfectMail to include:
-
A comprehensive suite of traditional anti-spam tests
-
New, next-generation anti-spam tests that significantly improve PerfectMail's accuracy
-
An Adaptive Learning engine so that PerfectMail will discover relevant information about
senders and recipients. That information is passed through a feedback loop where it is used
to further enhance PerfectMail's accuracy.
-
An appliance based solution that is fast, efficient, highly accuraty, easy to install, has low
overhead, can scan thousands of e-mails per hour and simply works better.
-
Anti-virus functionality to keep malicious or dangerous e-mail out of your network.
-
A simple web based user interface that provides all of the management and operational
functionality needed to effectively manage all aspects of e-mail security and filtering.
PerfectMail Version 3 (or just PerfectMail) delivers on all of these objectives.
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PerfectMail Project Credits
A project like PerfectMail involves the efforts and talents of many skilled professionals.
XPMsoftware would like to thank everyone involved with the PerfectMail project including:
The PerfectMail Development Team
XPMsoftware would like to recognize the tremendous effort of all of the developers who contributed
their time, talent and efforts into making PerfectMail an absolutely outstanding product.
Our staff have been absolutely excellent. PerfectMail has been in development for long a long
time (because we refused to take it to market until we were absolutely ready).
It was not always obvious that the project would produce the results that we have achieved
(or even that the project would complete). We really appreciate the faith and
confidence you have shown over these past years.
Research & Development Assistance
XPMsoftware would like to graciously recognize the support
and assistance of the Government of Canada
and the Government of the Province of Ontario for ongoing funding of the PerfectMail project.
The financial assistance provided allowed us to focus on the underlying research that
is so necessary for producing a truly effective E-Mail security solution.
Funding was provided through
the
Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) research program.
Your tax dollars at work helping to stop Spam!
Professional Peers
XPMsoftware is very fortunate to be associated with the following companies.
Each of these organizations has had a significant positive impact on our
many business endevours. They all come highly recommended!
XPMsoftware would like to thank Ms. Nicola Gonsalves at
RDC Consulting
for assisting
us with our filings for the SR&ED program. If you are located in Canada
and would like to recoup some of your investment in product research and
XPMsoftware would also like to thank Ms. Betty Alexander and all of the good
folks at
XPosure Public Relations
Consulting. Got a message you need to get out? Need to work
with the press and/or media? Then give Betty a call. Highly recommended.
Need a graphics artist? If you do, you should check out the folks at
Dog House
Designs. Very professional, highly competent and the absolute best for
dealing with last minute panic jobs.
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About AEI
XPMsoftware is the software development arm of Application Enhancements Inc - a UNIX and Linux
focused technical consultancy and boutique Internet Service Provider
located in Brampton, Ontario Canada.
Application Enhancements has maintained a constant presence on the Internet since 1992. We
provide technical consulting services to clients to help them leverage the power of the
Internet for the benefit of their clients and their business. In the late 1990's, our Internet
clients started raising the Spam alarm and asked us to see what we could do to stop the
problem.
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