There were a couple different ones that we checked out. They were unique in their own right. Some of them were very niche on what they could do, but what we really decided on is we did not want an email gateway. We wanted an email protection system that was integrated directly into Microsoft via API. Because an email gateway receives emails and then forwards them on, where if it's integrated into Office 365, then it inspects it while it is in your box. There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to that, but we just didn't want to have another bottleneck that if the email gateway went down then we are not getting any emails whatsoever. If my email goes down, it is because Microsoft goes down. 

Another thing is an email gateway does not remove emails from your inbox. Whereas, if an API is integrated into your platform, then the administration will actually manage the mailboxes for you. If we have to go in and pull something or take something and put it in there, then we can do that. Or, if we need to manipulate what we need, e.g., let the email be there but not the attachment, then it gives us a lot more scalability and configurability to manage the messaging and user experience.

Something that was fascinating is the Avanan platform manages Microsoft email better than Microsoft does. It has been just great. It made it real easy for our folks to say, "Hey, we got to pull this email from everybody's mailboxes." Single click. Or, "We have to identify who all received this particular component," or other different things that we need to do. Where in the Microsoft world, you need to run PowerShell scripts, which is really stupid from the standpoint that if you are a cloud-based solution, why am I doing command lines in order to execute simple administrative activities? It is great that a lot of those old schoolers love command lines? It just doesn't make sense to do command lines over the cloud, unless I physically have a direct line into that console and are managing the actual server. However, for a cloud platform to do CLI, that is ridiculous. 

I guess our expectations are a bit high and Microsoft is just not meeting them. 

Avanan provides rich, contextual information that helps protect our users. We are given way more information than Microsoft ever would give us. It is actionable information and information that makes sense.

We did look into some Mircosoft and Cisco-based solutions. We chose Avanan due to the features and flexibility it provides. We looked at reviews and third-party websites to gain insights. 

Barracuda’s modules are disconnected. If we need to go from one to another, it's almost like logging in to a completely separate resource. The modules don't naturally talk to each other. Avanan feels like one holistic dashboard, and all the tools seem to know what the other one's doing. There's no disparity in information or additional steps that we're redoing that we already did in another module.

Avanan had been the best in terms of email security management.

Microsoft does a reasonable job, but it doesn't do enough of a job. Microsoft catches about 85% of threats, but Avanan catches 99.7%.

There was no other option that we looked at.

I evaluated other products, however, Avanan was best in terms of performance and cost.

Yes we sue SpamTitan Email Security

I did not evaluate other options.

This has been my email security platform since I started my career.

I evaluated other options, however, this software is better in terms of performance.

We looked into many options, however, we find this as the most cost-effective.

We evaluated some options such as Microsoft. However, we like the features provided by Check Point Avanan better.

The company evaluated Proofpoint Email Protection, yet Avanan was more powerful.

Yes, we looked at many options, especially McAfee and the other big-name brands. 

I evaluated other email security products, however, Avanan was the best.

Not really, as there are limited options re: CASB products.