Let me explain the quandary: I thought about doing the ASSP install, but so far I've only heard about ASSP running as a gateway between the mail server and the outside world. Only after reading your email am I aware of the possibility of installing ASSP on the Imail server.
I'm the IMGate guy, so I'm biased, but no matter what brand of front-end, a separate box as MX is architecturally superior to the one-box solution. A front-end box like IMGate (open, configurable, efficient) is box full of solutions waiting for you to have problems.
And philosophically, I'm against accepting 100% of all traffic (and bandwidth, etc) and then deciding 85+% is spam to be rejected, black holed, or quarantined.
With IMGate (or any front end MX) filtering for just unknown recipients, senders that don't verify, and greylisting, it blocks 70+%. Throw in a reliable RBL or two, and you're up to 80%. Meaning only 20% is passed through to the content-scanner on the mailbox server (any brand).
Sure, people are satisfied with the one-box solution in some cases, often with volumes on the low end.
But also, I have MANY IMGate clients, over the years, who worked for MONTHS with Imail people to fix their Imail problems, and then fixed everything just by adding IMGate. One site was so bad, even Imail people gave up and told the client to run IMGate so Imail would work right. He did, and Imail was ok.
Technically, you really want the MX to reject as much as it can before the DATA command.
And of course, if you have serious volumes, the separate MX (or MXs) is hands-down the best way to go.
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