Google gets SaaS-y with email security

It's no secret that enterprise email has historically been a cash cow for companies like Microsoft, IBM and Research in Motion (RIM). Now, it appears that Google is looking to get in on the action as well. The company has rolled out new Postini security email services that will allow enterprises to protect their email using a software as a service (SaaS) product. Google bought Postini last year for $625 million and has been using the company's technology to secure Gmail, Google's free, web-based email service, ever since. Now, however, companies will be able to utilize the same spam filtering, eDiscovery and security tools with their own email servers. The new products are as follows:

• Google Message Filtering: Anti-spam and anti-virus email filtering. $3 per user, per year.
• Google Message Security: Google Message Filtering plus stronger virus detection, outbound processing and content policy management. $12 per user, per year.
• Google Message Discovery: Google Message Security plus one year of email archiving, retention and discovery. $25 per user, per year.

All three solutions are available now, for users of Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise. "The vast majority of enterprise out there that have not deployed Gmail are using Exchange servers, Notes servers and GroupWise servers, etc., [and] now have the ability to deploy some fashion of Google Apps and make it work with their existing infrastructure," said Postini founder and Google director of product management, Scott Petry.

For more on the new products:
- see this eWeek article