Battle for the Enterprise: The Antivirus War
Thu Mar 14, 1:58 PM ET
Robyn Weisman, www.NewsFactor.com
story.news.yahoo.com
Over the past 18 months, enterprises have devoted more IT resources than ever before to antivirus protection in order to combat the blitz of viruses, worms and Trojan horses that terrorize their networks on a daily basis.
SecurityFocus threat analyst Ryan Russell told NewsFactor that in the case of many worms or viruses, particularly those that spread as e-mail attachments, smart user behavior conceivably could lessen the need for antivirus software.
But because users too often exhibit carelessness, he added, using antivirus software as a second line of defense is a reasonable precaution.
"You can't rely on any one mechanism to be 100 percent effective," Russell told NewsFactor. "About the best you can do now is to have multiple barriers in place, including user education, and a decent response plan. These worms now spread so fast that [enterprises] have no hope of keeping clean without some sort of automated help."
Increasing Awareness
Cate Quirk, applications, technologies and services analyst at AMR Research, told NewsFactor that as awareness of the virus problem has penetrated the mainstream, networked establishments of all sizes are recognizing the need for and importance of having an antivirus strategy in place.
"Some reasons for increased interest seem to be an overall increase of knowledge and the realization that so much intellectual property now travels via e-mail that the system is vulnerable and needs to be protected," Quirk said.
Choosing a Vendor
Giga Information Group industry analyst Jan Sundgren told NewsFactor that enterprises typically look for two things when choosing an antivirus vendor: performance and support.
"They look at the speed of the engine and at special technologies that make scanner engines more efficient," Sundgren said.
"Then the enterprise [asks whether it will] get help from the vendor when, for example, the scanning engine is interfering with a portion of the network or creating other problems, and how quickly such problems can be resolved," Sundgren added.
The Big Guys
Although multiple vendors crowd the antivirus space with various combinations of products and services, two companies -- Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) and Network Associates (NYSE: NET) subsidiary McAfee (Nasdaq: MCAF) -- have emerged as leaders in their field.
Presently, Symantec and McAfee dominate the U.S. market, although such companies as Tokyo-based Trend Micro (Nasdaq: TMIC) and UK-based Sophos Plc have a larger slice of the global market pie, according to Sundgren.
"You don't get fired for buying Symantec or McAfee," because they are considered safe choices, Sundgren said. As a result, many enterprises do not bother looking into alternative sources of network antivirus protection.
Don't Ignore Little Guy
Sundgren noted, however, that the market is more competitive than it is made out to be.
"There are enough other potential players to keep big guys honest, so [Symantec and McAfee] can't jack prices up too much," Sundgren said.
AMR analyst Quirk said that although antivirus industry consolidation is accelerating, there always seems to be room for the "little guy" because of changes transpiring within the industry itself.
"The security industry has yet to see that suite vendor completely succeed, and this is where some of the smaller niche players come in," Quirk said.
Hedging Bets
Giga analyst Sundgren went on to say that as the number of serious virus outbreaks increases, companies increasingly are hedging their bets by using multiple virus scanners in an effort to be sure they are as thoroughly covered as possible.
"Leading vendors can be slow on generating and releasing updates for scanner engines, so licensing multiple engines [gives businesses the opportunity] to test some of these alternative players on different areas of their networks," such as the desktop and the exchange server, Sundgren said.
"This enables [niche players] to penetrate [the] U.S. market and increase mindshare." |
