It's never been more important to have up-to-date anti-virus protection, with new viruses appearing faster than ever, and writers finding ever more ingenious ways of delivering their payloads. Equally important in the corporate environment is the need for protection at every point of entry to the network. It's no longer sufficient just to install anti-virus software on desktop PCs; servers, too, are vulnerable, along with Internet and email gateways. And, although a prime target, Windows isn't the only vulnerable operating system.
Another major concern on large networks is management. All those client and gateway scanners need to be kept up to date with the latest software and signature files, and without each one needing to access the Internet or for support staff to walk from desk to desk with a CD-Rom. You'll also want to be able to identify unprotected systems and install anti-virus software remotely. Decent alerting and reporting tools are a must, and it's a good idea to lock down the anti-virus configuration and be able to vary security policies to suit different groups of users.
To address these and other issues affecting enterprise networks, the anti-virus vendors offer a variety of corporate-grade software for use on a range of platforms. In this group test we take a look at how five such products are implemented, the pedigree of the developer and the breadth of their cover, together with the approach taken to management on a large enterprise network.
Eset Software NOD32 Enterprise Edition
F-Secure Anti-Virus Total Suite
Kaspersky Labs Anti-Virus Business Optimal
Sophos Anti-Virus
Symantec Anti-virus Corporate Edition
Download a table of features relating to all the products in our group test here. (256KB). You will need Acrobat Reader 5.0 or above, in order to view the table. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader here.
More group tests:
Office Suites
Firewalls
Colour Laser Printers
Linux
See also:
All Antivirus & Firewalls


