Bandwidth Control

Most managers are aware that unsupervised Internet and email access can become black holes with respect to productivity and employee time wasting. However, these crucial business assets are also at risk in less apparent ways. A frequently overlooked side effect of non-business usage is reduced network performance. Spam messages, large joke emails, games, personal photos, novelty file downloads, and so on can all clog bandwidth and reduce network speed. Such items may have a serious effect on legitimate business use.

Many businesses have documented that up to half of network bandwidth is consumed by only five percent of users. A single 5MB joke screensaver file consumes the same bandwidth as over 160 plain text business emails. Such a joke file is likely to be redistributed several times, further draining resources. Web sites containing audio and video files also consume both employee time and bandwidth. Non-business use of email and the Internet may well account for more than half of a company's bandwidth usage.

The first step in resolving these problems is to put in place a corporate Internet usage policy. MailMarshal software and the Postini Perimeter Manager  Managed Service for email traffic and WebMarshal or the Postini Perimeter Manager for Web Managed Service for web traffic can be the key to enforcing such a policy and reducing wasted bandwidth improving network performance.

MailMarshal email security software or the Postini Perimeter Manager  Managed Service can assist with bandwidth savings in a number of areas:

•  rejection of oversized emails before the bulk of the message arrives, thus reducing both internet and intranet loading
• Postini can drop connections from known compromised IP addresses (BOTNETS) reducing dramatically the number of invalid email connections.
• Employee awareness that a company usage policy is effectively enforced will reduce the number of joke, spam and chain messages being transmitted. Such messages are typically larger than average
• Reports on bandwidth usage can be generated by user, group or department. Problem users can be identified, and administration can charge bandwidth costs out accurately to departments based on their proportion of use
• Message parking can delay the sending of large, non-urgent messages to off-peak times, ensuring optimum network speed during normal business hours

WebMarshal web access control software or the Postini Perimeter Manager for Web Managed Service can also assist with bandwidth savings:

• File downloads may be limited by user and size
• Downloads may be limited by user and type, so that only users who need file downloads are permitted to use them
• Limiting access to non-business-related sites inherently reduces the number of web page requests and thus the bandwidth usage for your organization
• Sites such as music and porn sites, which are clearly not business related, tend to have many large files. Stopping access to these sites can have a large effect on bandwidth usage