PerfectMail E4500 vs. MailFrontier m1000 Comparative Analysis

The PerfectMail E4500 appliance was selected for comparison with the MailFrontier m1000 appliance because the two products provide nearly identical hardware platforms.

Summary

• Is lower in cost than the MailFrontier m1000
• Offers better accuracy than the MailFrontier m1000
• Uses enterprise class SCSI disks and RAID controllers where the MailFrontier m1000 uses consumer disks and non-accelerated RAID
• Has no preset limits on the number of users or domains you can protect
• Works with any mail server

The MailFrontier m1000

• Has more options for 3^rd party antivirus solutions
• Provides slightly better antivirus protection
• Only works with Microsoft Exchange™ and Lotus Notes™

Detailed Comparison

Price & Limitations

Category	PerfectMail E4500		MailFrontier m1000		Comments
Base price with one year Maintenance		$36,595		$70,000¹ Customer must call for pricing	The PerfectMail E4500 sells for about 50% of the price of a MailFrontier m100.
Messages Per Hour		no preset limit		under 100,000 per hour	Appliances are approximately equal in hardware configuration. Filter speed will depend on the efficiency of the underlying operating system and filter software. Both have more than sufficient power to handle a 1,000 user organization.
Number of Supported Users		unlimited		unlimited ?	The PerfectMail E4500 does not impose user limitations so there is more room for growth. We simply don't know about user limits on the MailFrontier m1000.
Number of Supported Domains		unlimited		?	The PerfectMail E4500 lets you protect as many domains as you like at no additional charge.
Antivirus Engine		ClamAV w. Hourly updates		MailFrontier Time-Zero Virus Technology	Timely antivirus updates ensure accurate virus protection. MailFrontier offers a slightly reduced window of vulnerability.
Additional Antivirus Protection		tbd		McAfee	MailFrontier lets you add 3rd party antivirus software onto the m1000. Third party AV including McAfee and Kaspersky AV is available for extra cost.
Antispam Engine		PerfectMail		MailFrontier	Both companies have full control over their antispam technology.

Accuracy & Consistency

Category	PerfectMail E4500		MailFrontier m1000		Comments
Filter Accuracy		>99.9%		>97%	Higher accuracy means less time wasted handling spam.
Consistency		Guaranteed delivery of e-mails from discovered peers		?	PerfectMail learns your e-mail peers and ensure that their e-mail is handled correctly
False Positives		<1 in 100,000		<0.25%	PerfectMail is less likely to reject a legitimate e-mail.

Appliance Comparison

Category	PerfectMail E4500		MailFrontier m1000		Comments
Processor		2 x Intel Xeon - 3.0ghz		2 x Intel Xeon - 3.0ghz	Faster processors complete mail filtering tasks more quickly.
Memory		4GB DDR ECC		2GB DDR ECC	The PerfectMail E4500 offers twice the memory of the MailFrontier m1000.Extra memory is used to accelerate disk traffic for faster database lookups.
Storage		5x72GB 10,000rpm Enterprise SATA disks		2x160gb 7,200rpm consumer disks	The PerfectMail E4500's disks are enterprise class Enterprise SATA and include a hot spare disk. The MailFrontier m1000 uses consumer oriented disks. The E4500's disks are at least 3x faster than the m1000's!
Hot Swap Disks		yes		yes	Hot swap disks let you replace a failed drive without powering down the appliance.
Hot Spare Disks		yes		no	Hot spare disks are used to instantly rebuild failed arrays. Hot spares significantly reduce the window of vulnerability when a drive fails.
RAID Level		RAID-10		RAID-1	RAID-10 provides better redundancy and significantly higher performance over RAID-1
Accelerated Hardware RAID		yes		?	The PerfectMail M4500 offers accelerated Hardware RAID-10 with onboard RAID processor and 128mb of high speed data cache.
NIC		2x 100/1000mb		1x 100 or 1x1000mb	Faster NICs mean lower network latency
Chassis Format		2U Rackmount with sliding rails		1U Rackmount	Low profile appliances conserve space on your server rack
Operating System		Hardened Linux		Hardened Windows 2003 Server	There is no way we are going to get into the who is more secure - Linux or Windows argument! However, by not paying royalties to Microsoft, we can sell our appliances at a lower price.

Installation & Configuration

Category	PerfectMail E4500		MailFrontier m1000		Comments
Quick Set Up		30 minutes or less		about an hour	Both products are fast and easy to set up.
Administrator Interface		Web		Web	Installation and configuration is accomplished through a simple web based interface
User Software		Not Needed		Agents for OutLook™, OutLook Express™ and Lotus Notes™	No agents means less work for e-mail administrators.
Mail Server Compatibility		All		Exchange & Lotus Notes	PerfectMail works with any SMTP compliant mail server.

Notes:

Information on the MailFrontier m1000 provided by MailFrontier.