Best enterprise AV....

R.O.S.S.I · 19 Jan 2013 at 23:50

Hi all. We currently use ESET Nod 32 at your our place as the AV and our license is up for renewal very soon, I'm just in the process of researching what other softwares there are out there at the moment and how they compare.

I can't say that I fault ESET really however this was a piece of software that was already in use when I started working at my current place so have no idea for the reasons behind choosing it. Had a bit of a nightmare when it came to reconfiguring clients to find the AV server after we updated our servers as the old IT admin had set a config password and not documented it! so I had to get ESET to manually unlock them all which was a pain but other than that it seems to be OK.

Is there anything out there that is widely regarded as one of the most safe, secure and lightweight or are they all a much of a muchness?
Anyone any recommendations?

Thanks.

img · 20 Jan 2013 at 08:28

Ive used most and I would put nod32 up there. Unfortunately we now have mcafee which we would be better off without due to so many issues it causes. Even symantec is much better thsn mcafee now.

Whatever you do dont go for panda

zakblood · 20 Jan 2013 at 08:41

h88p://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/small-business-antivirus/

as i've only used 3 in the past, one being the one use already have and recommend it highly.

i can only say that Kaspersky Business Space Security or Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition would be my recommnedation

while i'd say none are light weight tbh.

and all AV programs aren't built the same, some scan a lot better and quicker than others plus some seem to slow the pc down more than others, i'd have any of the 3 above as they are easy to set up and use

matthab · 20 Jan 2013 at 10:58

I would rate Sophos at the moment.

celliott · 20 Jan 2013 at 11:18

NOD32 or Kaspersky

Symantec endpoint is OK, Sophos never seems to be that effective and has a job even with some common viruses. We've also had a few cases where its picked up a peice of our software as malware and quarantined it, needless to say that resulted in a lot of upset customers that day!

SaltandSauce · 20 Jan 2013 at 13:12

NOD32 certainly gets my vote. It's been up there with the best of them for a long time now. That must certainly speak for something!

SaltandSauce · 20 Jan 2013 at 13:13

Oh yeah, on another note, stay clear of McAfee. I work with it on a daily basis and it's just not worth the trouble. I keep trying to tell higher management that but let's face it, what do they care?

kefkef · 20 Jan 2013 at 13:40

Sophos at our place on ~15k desktops, not too many issues and picks up all the viruses we've seen so far. Limitless budget would probably bring Kaspersky in the picture though.

Uhtred · 20 Jan 2013 at 14:55

We use SEP but I wouldn't recommend it as it does seem to bog clients down.

Yamahahahahaha · 20 Jan 2013 at 15:47

Sophos because it's cheap and not bad. AV is not terribly effective under most circumstances and should only be considered as part of a more holistic approach to security.

dfarrall · 20 Jan 2013 at 17:22

NOD32

Westyfield2 · 20 Jan 2013 at 17:45

We use SEP. If I had my way it would be NOD32 though.

Swarfega · 21 Jan 2013 at 12:49

Sophos gets another vote from me. McAfee ePO is messy. Symantec have always been pretty good but I haven't see it for a long time now.

MagicBoy · 21 Jan 2013 at 12:52

You got an MS Agreement? May well be entitled to FEP as part of that.

R.O.S.S.I · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:41

MagicBoy said:
You got an MS Agreement? May well be entitled to FEP as part of that.

FEP? Is that Forefront?

We don't have an MS agreement as such, however we are a charity and get hold of all MS products for next to nothing. I'm not too clued up on Forefront, what exactly is it?

At the moment we use SpamHero to deal with our spam filtering etc which does an excellent job, then we use NOD32 to protect client machines.

I might just see what sort of renewal we can get with NOD32 then if people are rating it highly!

MagicBoy · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:53

Forefront Enterprise something, replaces the older Forefront Client Security. It's basically the corporate version of MSE, with all the enterprise twiddly bits. There are other Forefront products for your other security needs but I don't know a lot about those.

Our place cancelled the McAfee renewal as we were entitled to it under Software Assurance. It's lightweight and gets the updates via SCCM/WSUS in our case which cuts down on extra products cluttering up the PCs (eg McAfee EPO).

R.O.S.S.I · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:56

We have software assurance, would it be in our licensing centre if we had access to it?

stoofa · 21 Jan 2013 at 17:28

Have been very pleased with Sophos for the past 3yrs and I'll be renewing for another 3 next month.
Nice and easy to set up. Integrates with AD.
Easy to read, understand and "act upon" dashboard. Easy to roll out to all clients no matter their OS.

n30_mkii · 21 Jan 2013 at 17:59

Moved away from Symantec AV in favour of Forefront Client Protection, which to be honest was because of licencing included in our Enterprise agreement. The product lacked some key functionality and administration / reporting was a little lacking. We are now moving to use SCEP (System Center Endpoint Protection) full integration with Config Manager and loads more functionality. Can't knock it!

Devz · 21 Jan 2013 at 18:54

Another +1 for NOD32, very solid AV.