IronPort AsyncOS Operating System
All IronPort appliances are built from the ground up and are powered by IronPort's unique AsyncOS™ operating system for high performance and high security. Designed to meet the inbound and outbound needs of the world's largest email infrastructures, IronPort appliances contain advanced mail delivery features such as robust queue management, bounce handling and connection management. This ensures that email infrastructure is never overwhelmed - even during the largest virus outbreaks or spam attacks - while saving money on hardware, rack space, power, and IT administration time.
AsyncOS allows the IronPort appliances to process mail over 10x more efficiently than traditional UNIX systems.
IronPort started with a FreeBSD kernel and made three major changes. First, IronPort developed a stackless threading model that allows the IronPort appliance to support more than 10,000 simultaneous connections, in contrast to the 100 connections supported on a traditional OS. IronPort also developed a high performance file system and an I/O driven scheduler optimized for the asynchronous nature of messaging (hence "Async"OS). Finally, AsyncOS was designed to have no user-accessible UNIX shell - making it much simpler to administer and inherently secure. Users interact with a web based GUI or fully scriptable command line interface. The appliance has a similar feel as other network appliances such as a router, switch or firewall, many of which utilize modified FreeBSD kernels.
AsyncOS allows the IronPort appliances to process mail over 10x more efficiently than traditional UNIX systems, providing extremely high capacity and availability.
