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By Elinor Mills, 12 May 2008 09:10

NEWS

Google has announced a re-branded web security for Enterprise based on the Postini technology it acquired last year.

The web hosted service protects corporate web and email users from viruses, spyware and malicious websites, and extends protection directly to remote workers if needed.

The release is part of Google's hosted apps business but targeted at corporate customers with a subscription fee rather than consumers who have come to expect free apps from Google.

Philippe Courtot, chief executive of Qualys, which offers security as a service to corporations, said: "Securing the current enterprise environment is futile. This is a problem Microsoft should have fixed a long time ago."

With an arsenal of search, web hosted apps and the advertising-supported "money-making machine...Google is going to kill Microsoft," Courtot predicted.

Google's offering is compelling for corporations because of the ease with which they can be up and running without any IT headaches, says Nitesh Dhanjani, senior manager and leader of application security services at Ernst & Young.

Dhanjani said: "Microsoft says 'here's the software.' Google says 'it's already there; we just create the accounts and you can start today'. We're seeing, from an IT perspective, that in the next couple of years services will move into the cloud, even security services, so Google is really thinking ahead."

However Microsoft also offers security services. The company turned its FrontBridge acquisition into Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services, which includes security. But the software giant doesn't have a pure, software-as-a-service-based messaging security platform like Google or MessageLabs, says Paul Roberts, senior analyst for enterprise security at The 451 Group.

Roberts said: "Microsoft clearly sees the light that the web and the internet are the [operating systems] of the future and that selling shrink-wrapped software isn't going to be feasible."