ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Dec. 8, 2009 – Cisco announced today that Baltika, a leading brewery in Russia, has upgraded its e-mail security infrastructure and deployed Cisco IronPort Email Security Appliances - two new Cisco IronPortX1050 servers. The new implementation comes after the Cisco IronPort technology proved effective in blocking 99 percent of spam e-mail over the past two years: from 140 million junk e-mails per month to 1.4 million.
In 2006, Baltika was challenged with the urgent need to eliminate spam that was flooding the company's e-mail systems and choking the network. Productivity was also hugely affected, as workers had to manually sift through e-email. The existing enterprise mail server was unable to manage the increasing volume of unwanted e-mails, and the traditional anti-spam software based on open databases not only failed to reduce spam volumes but also often blocked bona fide e-mails.
Baltika needed a system that would address the increasing volume of spam effectively while easily integrating with the existing network. Cisco IronPort technology not only proved well ahead of competitive solutions in offering strong protection against spam, but also offered fault tolerance, ease of installation, administration and operation, and future scalability. One of the major criteria that affected Baltika's choice of e-mail security system was the flexibility of security policy management.
Following successful testing, Cisco IronPort 2xC600 was deployed across the company to protect 4,000 users across 10 cities in Russia. Today, after a two-year operation of Cisco IronPort at Baltika, results show that the system is an excellent spam barrier, working with almost no false alarms in a very intensive e-mail environment. In the very first month of the deployment, IronPort was able to process 4 million e-mails: slightly over 2 percent were bona fide; nearly 98 percent were spam.
Key Facts / Highlights:
- At Baltika brewery, Cisco IronPort reduces spam e-mail by 99 percent. In recent years, junk e-mail volumes at Baltika have grown exponentially: from 4 million messages a month in 2007 to 30 million in 2008 and 140 million in 2009.
- According to the Cisco 2009 Midyear Security report, spam remains a major vehicle for spreading worms and malware, as well as for clogging Internet traffic. A staggering 180 billion spam messages are sent each day, representing about 90 percent of the world's e-mail traffic.
- Cisco IronPort e-mail security appliances are easy-to-deploy solutions that are designed to defend e-mail systems against spam, viruses, phishing and a wide variety of other threats. In use at eight of the 10 largest Internet service providers (ISPs) and more than 40 percent of the world's largest enterprises, these systems have a demonstrated record of accuracy, reliability and performance.
- The IronPort X1050 high-performance e-mail security appliance is built to protect the most demanding networks in the world. ISPs and large enterprises continue to be the primary targets of spam and viruses.
- Cisco IronPort Reputation Filters provide the outer layer of spam protection for e-mail infrastructure.
Supporting Quotes:
- Herman Epstein, chief information officer, Baltika:
- Pavel Betsis, general manager, Cisco Russia:
"Spam can be a nuisance to business productivity, certainly for large enterprises like Baltika. Our experience shows that active dialogue with a security vendor, in our case Cisco, ensures much greater protection against spam. For instance, Baltika uses spam traps to forward e-mails directed to former employees straight to Cisco IronPort database, strengthening the efficacy of its reputation filter."
"As spam becomes more sophisticated, enterprises must continually evolve their e-mail management systems to protect the business from spam-related downtime or loss in worker productivity. For rapidly expanding businesses, such as Baltika, Cisco IronPort makes it possible to significantly reduce spam volume and secure crucial communications channels through flexible management of security policies."
Supporting Resources:
- Cisco IronPort S-Series Web Security Appliances
- IronPort Email and Web Security Products
- IronPort Reputation Filters
- Cisco Security Intelligence Operations
- Visit the Cisco Security Blog
- Subscribe to Cisco's RSS Feed.
Technorati Tags:
Cisco, Baltika, IronPort, IronPort X1050, IronPort 2xC600, spam, e-mail, security, reputation filters
About Baltika
Baltika Breweries is the largest FMCG producer in Russia; since 1996 it has been the leader of the Russian beer market. In terms of sales, the Baltika brand holds first place in Europe (Canadean, Euromonitor). The company has breweries in 10 Russian cities and 1 brewery in Azerbaijan, and boasts a large brand portfolio. Baltika Breweries is the leading exporter of Russian beer: Baltika products are available in more than 50 countries make up 70% of all Russian beer exports.