Re: Barracuda Spam Filter

[Justin Sipher <jsipher () SKIDMORE EDU>]

Add us to the list of schools who are very happy Barracuda users.
However, I will share a recent story which dampers our enthusiasm
slightly.  Our single unit (model 600) had a hardware failure
recently.  It was in this process that we learned that we had a new
"single point of failure" in the e-mail system.  One major problem at
the point of the failure is that all mail in the quarantine at the
time of the failure was lost.  Although most was SPAM, I do know that
I had at least one valid e-mail in it.  It was between when I
received the e-mail quarantine summary and when I actually went to
retrieve/delete the message when the failure occurred.  To prevent
this in the future, we've bought a second one and will have the two
clustered for redundancy.  The second problem we had is that they
**appear** to be a victim of their own success.  At the point of the
failure they were out of stock for a replacement even though we were
at the upgraded "instant replacement" level.  In our case it took
three days to get a replacement and then it was a 400 model to hold
us over till they could get a 600.  Not ideal.

I do think they have learned from this (and maybe other) incidents
and knowing everything I know now, I'd still buy another one, so the
up-side is pretty high to overcome those shortcomings.

...Justin
_______________________________________________________
  Justin Sipher
  Chief Technology Officer
  Skidmore College
  Saratoga Springs, NY
  jsipher () skidmore edu
  518-580-5909
_______________________________________________________

On Jul 25, 2005, at 11:35 AM, Gibbs, Aaron M. wrote:

> I'm looking at the Barracuda Spam Filter and would like to know if
> anyone is currently using it. If so what your experiences have been.
>
> Aaron M Gibbs
> Interim Vice President/CIO
> Center for Information Technology
> St. Augustine's College
> 919-516-4379 (Office)
> 919-516-4382 (Fax)
> amgibbs () st-aug edu
> www.st-aug.edu