SpamTitan Anti Spam Solution

In order to evaluate a new appliance, the manufacturer must first ship a sample appliance to the evaluation tester. Once the decision is made to perform the evaluation, arranging for a sample appliance can often take on the order of two weeks before the appliance is available for testing. On completion of the evaluation, the sample appliance must then be shipped back to the manufacturer. Even in the event that the appliance is purchased, generally a new appliance will need to be shipped as the sample appliance will be "shop soiled" and unavailable for sale. Further to this, often it is a requirement of evaluation that the appliance be tested within the data centre or at a remote geographic location. This adds further difficulties in installing and performing the evaluation as the tester must arrange for the appliance to be further delivered to the data centre and installed.

Virtual appliances allow the user to load the virtualized image onto an existing server or desktop and begin evaluation and testing immediately. On completing the evaluation, the administrator or evaluator can simply remove the virtual image and the system is restored to its original state.

By encapsulating the server image in a single file, it is possible to duplicate the image and revert to an earlier image as necessary. By using a virtual server, the test team can produce a pristine installation and duplicate that image. For each test, they can then begin the process starting with a copy of the pristine image and be confident that there are no vestiges of the previous test. For example, using the VMware application and the SpamTitan email security virtual appliance, it is possible to bring up an evaluation copy of the email security system with little more than a download. Extensive testing in a real-life environment can begin almost immediately after preliminary configuration. At any point during the evaluation, it is trivial to revert to the original installation without the need to ship a new appliance. The evaluation can also be performed on the latest version of software available, as opposed to the version of software which was imaged onto the physical appliance during the manufacturing process some months previous. If a physical appliance is shipped by the manufacturer, it is possible that not only is the software out of date with the manufacturing process, but it is also possible that the appliance itself has been misconfigured in some way by a previous evaluation which will be difficult if not impossible for the evaluator to determine.

At the completion of an evaluation, it is often essential to retain the test data or evaluation data for some period of time until decisions have been made by other teams or by senior management. In the normal case, this requires that the sample appliance sit idle until such time as it is free to be reinstalled and redeployed. In some cases, the manufacturer will request the return of the appliance before even the evaluator has had time to complete the evaluation. In the case of virtual appliances, old evaluation and test images can be saved to tape or other backup medium for future analysis or further testing, thus freeing up the test system for other tests. Similarly, the test system can be easily restored to a pristine state by the application of a new image, thus preventing cross-contamination of tests.