Case Study: SureWest Communications reduces outbound spam and CPU load with Cloudmark Authority

SureWest Communications - Customer Case Study

SureWest Communications, one of the nation’s leading independent communications holding companies and an Internet service provider, faced growing outbound spam that threatened webmail users, increased resource consumption, created administrative burden, and risked blacklisting by other ISPs. To address the issue without replacing its open-source email stack, SureWest evaluated anti-spam options and looked for a solution that would work with its existing Apache SpamAssassin environment.

Cloudmark implemented Cloudmark Authority for Apache SpamAssassin, a carrier-grade plug-in that added threat signatures and advanced message fingerprinting to SureWest’s existing platform. Cloudmark delivered immediate results: scan times dropped from five to seven seconds to under one second per message, throughput increased 15–20 percent, CPU usage fell significantly, and SureWest was able to process 50 percent more messages per hour while reducing physical hardware from four machines to two. Cloudmark also helped SureWest proactively detect spam bursts, reduce blacklisting risk, and lower administrative costs.

SureWest Communications

Scott Barber

VP and GM for CA Operations