Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) protects the email infrastructure and employees who use email at work by filtering unsolicited and malicious email before it reaches the user. Cisco ESA easily integrates into existing email infrastructures with a high degree of flexibility. It does this by acting as a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) within the email-delivery chain. Another name for an MTA is a mail relay. Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) protects the email infrastructure and employees who use email at work by filtering unsolicited and malicious email before it reaches the user. Cisco ESA easily integrates into existing email infrastructures with a high degree of flexibility. It does this by acting as a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) within the email-delivery chain. Another name for an MTA is a mail relay. Reference: Cisco_SBA_BN_EmailSecurityUsingCiscoESADeploymentGuide-Feb2013.pdf Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) protects the email infrastructure and employees who use email at work by filtering unsolicited and malicious email before it reaches the user. Cisco ESA easily integrates into existing email infrastructures with a high degree of flexibility. It does this by acting as a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) within the email-delivery chain. Another name for an MTA is a mail relay. Cisco_SBA_BN_EmailSecurityUsingCiscoESADeploymentGuide-Feb2013.pdf