Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive

Overview

Proofpoint is a leading cybersecurity and compliance company that protects organizations’ greatest assets and biggest risks: their people. With an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions, Proofpoint helps companies around the world stop targeted threats, safeguard their data, and make their users more resilient against cyber-attacks. Leading organizations of all sizes, including 85 percent of the Fortune 100, rely on Proofpoint for people-centric security and compliance solutions that mitigate their most critical risks across email, the cloud, social media, and the web. Proofpoint Essentials is their solution designed for small- to mid-sized businesses, delivering enterprise-grade security at an accessible price point. Essentials is a comprehensive protection platform comprised of email protection, archiving, continuity, security awareness, and information protection. 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 complimentary 2GB of storage of email records per user, with a minimal one-time import fee. 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 groupsAdmins 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.

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 ranges between $70-$83 per user, per year.

Best Suited For

Because Proofpoint Essentials Email Archive isn’t available as a standalone solution, we would only recommend it to organizations 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, tamper proof copies of 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 500 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 businesses 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.