Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive

Overview

Proofpoint is a leader in the email security space, with over 2,000 employees and revenues of over $1bn. The world’s largest email security provider, Proofpoint is trusted to protect the inboxes of over 50% of the Fortune 100 and the top five banks globally. But despite these figures, Proofpoint is not just focused on enterprise security. Proofpoint Essentials is their solution for small- to mid-sized organizations. Essentials comprises two products: email security and security awareness training. Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is available within the Professional package of the Proofpoint Essentials Email Security Service.

Key Features

Email Storage And Retention

Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive offers unlimited storage of email records, with no import or export charges. Legacy data in imported to the platform free of charge, and Proofpoint will soon be releasing a self-service import feature that will allow companies to impot their own emails to the archive—this feature is currently in BETA testing. Email export is also free of charge—including if you cancel your subscription to the service and need to export all archived records. Proofpoint Essentials can store email records for a maximum of 10 years, which is the default setting for data retention. This could be a problem for organizations in sectors such as healthcare or finance, which may be required by data protection regulations to securely store data for longer periods of time. The platform’s retention policy is also “one size fits all”—you can’t set different retention policies for different user groups.

Searching

Admins can perform keyword searches, instructing Proofpoint to search for keywords in the From, To, Subject, and attachment content of an email. Searches can also be filtered according to date range and attachment type, with support for over 100 different forms of attachment. Searches are returned very quickly, but the granularity of searches offered by Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is very basic. Admins can export search results for ease of sharing.

Access Policies

Admins can configure policies to define which users can login to the archive and who can perform searches. User permissions can also enable users to perform searches, but prevent them from exporting search results. These policies can only be set at a global or user level, not a user group level.

Auditing

Proofpoint creates an audit trail of all search and export activities, but this data isn’t readily available; you have to contact Proofpoint and request the audit data to gain visibility.

Ease Of Use

Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is designed for use with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange email clients. It takes minutes to implement within Microsoft 365 environments and can be synced with Azure and Active Directory for ease of user management. It is not, however, suitable for use within Google Workspace environments. The platform offers a limited feature set in terms of search and discovery, but the search and export tools are easy to use and the interface is easy to navigate.

Pricing And Plans

Proofpoint Essential Email Archive is not a standalone solution; it’s available within Proofpoint Essentials Email Security Services as part of the “Professional” package. The Professional package also includes inbound and outbound email filtering, data loss prevention filters, the Attachment Defense Reputation Service, URL Defense, attachment sandboxing, email encryption, and social media protection. The total cost for the Professional package is $5.86/user/month.

Best Suited For

Because Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive isn’t available as a standalone solution, we would only recommend it to organization already using Proofpoint Essentials for email protection, or those that are looking to implement email archiving as part of a wider email security suite. Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is a robust yet simple arching solution. It offers secure, tamperproof copies of unlimited email records, and can store these records for up to 10 years.
As such, the platform is well suited to small businesses with up to 100 users that want a secure, cost-effective email archive, but have no requirement for granular eDiscovery functionality or complex data retention policies.

Final Verdict

Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is a robust and reliable archiving solution. It allows business to securely store tamperproof versions of their email records for up to 10 years and provides basic yet fast search functionality around those records. However, the platform’s low price point is reflected in its feature set, with limited data retention policies and eDiscovery functionality, and no readily available audit reports. As such, Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is a strong solution for organizations that want to use their archive for secure email backups, rather than for compliance management. We would recommend that SMBs already utilizing Proofpoint Essentials for email protection consider upgrading so that they can add email archiving onto their existing subscription. Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive is also suitable for SMBs operating within a Microsoft 365 environment, that are looking to implement basic email archiving as part of a broader email security suite.