Symantec has introduced Symantec Mail Security 8300 Series Virtual Edition, a virtual appliance version of the messaging security appliance. Operating in VMware Server and ESX environments, Virtual Edition gives users the ability to adjust spam and virus filtering capacity without having to add or configure the physical infrastructure.

"Spam volumes fluctuate day-to-day, but overall they’re on the rise. Symantec’s January 2008 State of Spam report showed that spam surged to new heights as 2007 ended, accounting for 75% of all email sent,” said Art Gilliland, Vice President of Product Management for Symantec. “Symantec Mail Security 8300 Virtual Edition gives users the power to instantly boost messaging security capacity whenever they need to.”

The Virtual Edition’s centralised control console allows users to increase or decrease messaging scanning capacity across existing servers and appliances. Users can also automatically synchronize configurations and reporting across systems, allowing them to measure system efficacy and meet industry compliance standards and regulatory mandates.

According to the release, the Symantec Mail Security 8300 Series Virtual Edition improves the efficiency of the messaging infrastructure by scanning and removing unsolicited messages from network and mailbox servers.

According to Chris Christiansen, Programme Vice President for IDC’s Security Products and Services group, “Symantec’s virtual appliance option gives customers the choice of quickly and incrementally scaling their messaging security infrastructure while taking advantage of the resource utilisation benefits of virtualisation.”