Proofpoint Moves Into Cloud-Based Email Security And Compliance Platform For The Enterprise

Proofpoint Inc., a provider of cloud-based email security, archiving and compliance solutions, announced today Proofpoint CloudControl, its email security and compliance platform for the enterprise. Proofpoint provides public cloud-based services focused entirely on security, compliance, archiving and eDiscovery on an integrated platform.

Proofpoint CloudControl employs a three-tiered architecture that includes a secure infrastructure, shared cloud services and a series of enterprise application suites. Full cloud-based deployments take advantage of all three layers, while private cloud or on-premises configurations employ specific components.

A secure infrastructure of robust compute, network and storage resources enables Proofpoint to offer a host of cloud-based security and compliance applications with stringent service level agreements (SLAs). This infrastructure is distributed to data centers worldwide, and network devices are redundant within each data center. Each customer is simultaneously deployed into multiple data centers, ensuring continuous availability in case of disaster.

“The ability to quickly search and view any email I’ve ever sent or received from my iPhone is a real productivity booster, as if I had Exchange in my pocket," said Steven Heller, chief technology officer at Graubard Miller. "It's applications such as this that further validate our decision to go with Proofpoint's SaaS archiving solution, since we immediately benefit from Proofpoint's continued investment in its cloud platform.”

In the architecture's middle layer, cloud services such as threat detection, classification, encryption, search and analysis, and policy enforcement provide core security and compliance capabilities that are shared across the application layer. The economies of scale provided by this layer enable Proofpoint to deliver a lower total cost of ownership and to quickly spin up new security and compliance applications.

Proofpoint's suite of applications leverages the common secure infrastructure and shared cloud services. These applications include Proofpoint Enterprise Protection for securing enterprises against malware and other malicious content; Proofpoint Enterprise Privacy for email and social-media compliance with standards including HIPAA, GLBA and PCI-DSS, data loss prevention and encryption; and Proofpoint Enterprise Archive for creating, maintaining and consistently enforcing a corporate email and social-media retention policy, as well as for eDiscovery, regulatory compliance and email storage management. To ensure the highest levels of data isolation and privacy, and provide complete control over various requirements, customers are deployed on isolated application instances.

“The Proofpoint mobile application with decrypt assist from Proofpoint has been on Guaranty Bank’s wish list,” said Kenneth Johnston, CIO and vice president of information systems at Guaranty Bank. “What I am really excited about is that Proofpoint mobile encryption can run on a variety of Smartphones. Our users have many different types of mobile phones, and the one-click access to decrypt messages makes this a very seamless process for them.”

Proofpoint has integrated a set of governance standards with its Proofpoint CloudControl architecture to ensure performance and compliance. The company actively monitors its secure infrastructure layer, collecting metrics on hardware, networking and OS, with thresholds designed to provide optimal performance. Automatic alerts and escalation schemes ensure potential issues are dealt with in a timely manner.

Proofpoint Connect, a set of secure web-based interfaces for programmatic platform access, operates across all three layers of the Proofpoint CloudControl architecture. Built on RESTful technology, Proofpoint Connect enables deployment of new applications that leverage the power of Proofpoint CloudControl.

“Employees and executives are demanding the ability to use their personal consumer devices for work, and they are using them whether their company allows it or not. Our Security and Compliance Cloud Platform is enabling mobile email security and compliance, ensuring corporate IT can meet its requirements while allowing employees to utilize a new generation of consumer devices,” said Peter Galvin, chief marketing officer, Proofpoint. “We recognize that security and compliance must be interwoven into any mobile initiative. Without it, costly data breaches and compliance violations will occur. Our cloud-based mobile applications will allow any enterprise to welcome consumer-based technology into its communications fold.”The full range of Proofpoint cloud-based applications and solutions are available now.