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Most small business PC users tend to think of IT security in terms of the installation of an anti-virus application, along with an Internet firewall, on their PCs, thereby completely ignoring the issue of content security.

Content security, though, covers a much broader set of issues than shrink-wrapped anti-virus and firewall software solves. For this reason, until quite recently, content security applications were only available for medium to large organisations, mainly due to their complexity and the need for experienced user installation. The market leaders in this software arena include Baltimore Technologies' MAILsweeper, Elron's Message Inspector, MessageLabs' SkyScan and Surf Control's SuperScout, to mention but a few. Although several of these brand leaders are scalable and, therefore, may be utilised by, say, a LAN system with 15 users, for small businesses their server-plus-user licence fee structure ramps the price up somewhat.

This is where Mail Warden enters the frame, with its package and licence fee prices designed for small business users - the entry level price for up to 25 users reflects this marketing strategy. The package itself is based around Norman ASA's Virus Control software, which the Norwegian virus specialist has licensed to BVRP for inclusion in Mail Warden, allowing BVRP to add its own email filtering technology to the mix.

As well as scanning inbound email for viruses, spam and other objectionable materials, Mail Warden also analyses outbound email for confidential or inappropriate material, rerouting any suspect items to an administrator's mailbox. Thanks to a modular approach, the application interfaces with MS-Exchange, Lotus Domino or just about any simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) email server system.

Rather than needing administrators to learn about the intricacies of SMTP email server systems, Mail Warden allows them to use a rules wizard to customise the application to fit in with their own enterprises' IT security policies. The rules wizard is flexible enough to accommodate any company with, for whatever reason, no IT security policies in place by allowing the use of a number of default settings. Using the rules wizard, administrators can also set up the software to receive notification of any rules being violated.

Installing this solution proved to be relatively straightforward, although we were disappointed to see that there wasn't even a basic manual supplied with the package - users have to rely totally on an Adobe PDF formal manual stored on the application's CD-ROM. The installation routines include an option to auto-install Adobe's Acrobat reader on the PC, which is fine for most, but not all, users. What happens, for example, if users haven't printed out the multi-page manual and the server goes belly-up? In theory, they could call BVRP for support, but the software only comes with 90 days of user support. After this period, they have to pay extra for support although, to be fair, BVRP does provide basic support services for all comers via its well-thought-out web site.

We tried to find out how much support contracts cost beyond the initial 90 days but when calling the Bournemouth-based support line - open between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays - and posing as an end user, the staff were unable to tell us how much such services cost. This combination of a lack of printed manual and limited-time support is not an ideal situation for small business users. Contrast this with an outsourced managed service provider (MSP) service from a business/security ISP. At least here users can have a totally outsourced Internet security system installed on their email servers, relying then on a support centre for updates, advisories and remote support services. There are budget versions available with managed firewall services - under which small business users can share their firewall system with other users, in return for a reduced cost. The cost of this service works out at around the £250 to install and £125 a month ongoing service rental, so the payback period for Mail Warden against such a service is around three months. It is important to weigh, though, all the hidden costs too - namely the time spent by employees learning to install securely as well as maintain Mail Warden.

As a very general rule of thumb, the annual total cost of ownership (TCO) of software applications is around 100 per cent of the original cost of the solution. So first-year costs for buying and installing Mail Warden should be around £1,200. If you factor in the cost of a support contract for, say, £200 a year the first-year figures start to come close to the £1,750 that a basic outsourced secure MSP facility may charge a small company. These figures, we hasten to point out, are very 'back of envelope' and the costs applicable to your own company's installation may differ significantly. Mail Warden, though, does offer small companies a fixed price alternative to a managed security service. We think that provided users install the package with a degree of common sense and take a few days to get to grips with understanding how an SMTP server works - perhaps by sourcing a book on the topic - then there are some tangible cost savings to be had.

Mail Warden is available for 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 users. It runs on a 233MHz Pentium II machine with 64Mb of memory, under Windows NT 4.0 with service pack 4 or higher. An Internet connection (modem dialup or better) is also required.

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