Danville Schools District Testimonial

Danville School District upgrades to Netmail Secure to protect teachers and staff from spam, while minimizing IT overhead

Background

Danville Schools District in Central Illinois consists of 8 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and a high school with a staff of about 700 tending to the needs of some 6200 students. Danville School District relies on Novell GroupWise for its collaboration system and for the past 3 years has been using the Guardian technology from Messaging Architects to protect the school messaging system from the constant spam and virus attacks.

Staying on Top of the Threats Facing the School Email System

The Danville Schools District IT department started protecting their GroupWise system from spam and viruses with the Guardian technology after their previous anti-spam solution proved to be ineffective, complex and pricey. In fact, despite a complex set-up using two different products to tackle the spam issue, they were only able to address about 80% of the problems. When there was a significant increase in the renewal subscription while the issues remained unaddressed, they decided to look for something else.

They had seen a demonstration of the anti-spam solution at several GroupWise events and decided to give it a try. Immediately, the feedback from the users was extremely positive. Their GroupWise inboxes were free of spam and they had the ability to review their spam quarantine through the quarantine reports emailed directly to them. When Netmail Secure, the new Linux-based secure gateway was released in 2007, the IT department was immediately interested in upgrading to it.

Christel Powell, Manager of Information Systems, explains. “We were already quite pleased with the old appliance which had freed up a lot of time by relieving us of the need to look at the spam quarantine with the added bonus of controlling viruses and forbidden attachments. When we were given the option to upgrade to the new appliance, I decided to take advantage of it. I already knew the anti-spam engines are solid and reliable. The new appliance gave us the opportunity to continue with our efforts to standardize on Linux as much as possible and also test the new technology.”

“I have to say that this was one of the easiest upgrades I have done,” continues Powell. “The spam trapping performance is really good and the web-based administration gives me the flexibility I need and lets me access the portal from anywhere. The end users are also happier as we have enabled them to have greater freedom in managing their own safe and block lists. They accepted the platform move quite easily because they continue to receive the reports they were used to and in fact can do more if they want to.”

“The best thing for me is that I don’t touch the Netmail Secure box. Everything is auto-updated and works without requiring any intervention on my part and this is wonderful. Any time I have a question, the Messaging Architects support team is there to offer timely help and advice,” concludes Powell.

Christel Powell

Manager of Information Systems

Danville School District #118

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