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CA Symantec McAfee Product Comparison.pdf (75.22 KB)

The following article was published by Productive Corporation to provide its customers with an additional resource in determining the right security suite for their company's environment. Productive produces content focusing on the relevant issues of Mid-Market IT professionals to give its customers perspective on current trends. Recent topics have included patch management, hosted recovery on demand, as well the evolution of software licensing. 

Providing you with a detailed comparison of today's leading security suites.

In today's ever-changing security landscape, small and mid-sized businesses are facing a dramatic increase in security threats. As an IT professional within this industry, you are responsible for determining the vital tools that will provide protection of business data and prevention of confidentiality breaches from these impending, diversified security threats. Because of this threat-laden environment, you must choose a viable solution that will minimize use of resources and increase productivity; which security solution should you turn to that will provide you with seamless multi-layered, vital data security?

Three of today's leading security software solutions provide you with an answer to this central question: CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection and McAfee's Total Protection. When considering these comprehensive security solutions, each solution should be evaluated, based on the following criteria: product features, supported systems, scalability, ease of install and use, cost, and added value. You are able to view a point-by-point comparison of each suite, below.

Product Features:

As an arbitrator in the small and mid-sized IT industry, you are aware that it is vital your company acquires a singular solution that will combat diversified threats, as well as, minimize cost and use of resources. This in mind, the appropriate comprehensive solution should integrate technologies such as antivirus; antispyware; firewall; application control; network access control; device control; OS security; intrusion detection and prevention; anti-spam and web filtering. CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection, and McAfee's Total Protection suites each battle threats by incorporating respective pre-configured solutions into their suite, as detailed below.  

CA's Total Defense solution combats today's complex threats by combining CA's Threat Manager, CA's Host-Based Intrusion Prevention and CA's Gateway Security into a multi-layered, protective suite.

Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection seamlessly bundles Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Mail Security for Domino, Microsoft Exchange and SMTP- creating a multi-layered, efficient suite.

McAfee's Total Protection solution provides a simple, easy and integrated suite, which includes McAfee's Host Intrusion Prevention v4.7, McAfee's VirusScan Enterprise v4.7, McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator v4.7 and McAfee's Email and Web Security Appliance Model 3100.

Please view the detailed visual aid to compare product features of CA, Symantec and McAfee.

Supported Systems:

It is incontrovertible that before you are able to make a decision on moving forward with a multi-layered, comprehensive suite, it is vital to ensure that the solution is compatible with your established environment. The two supported systems to be mindful of are hardware and operating systems.

CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection, and McAfee's Total Protection share best practices on hardware supported systems, which dictate that you should have at least 10GB disk space and 2GB RAM available on the Management Consoles and at least 1GB disk space and 1GB RAM for workstations/client systems to effectively run any integrated solution. Please view the detailed account of each product's memory requirements, below.

CA's Total Defense memory requirements for the Client System are 512MB in RAM and for the Management Console 1GB of RAM.

Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection memory requirements for the Client System are 256MB in RAM and for the Management Console 2GB of RAM.

McAfee's Total Protection memory requirements for the Client System are 128MB in RAM and for the Management Console 256MB of RAM.

Please view the detailed visual aid for the supported operating systems of CA, Symantec and McAfee.

Scalability:

As you look for a specialized, multi-layered suite to safeguard your small to mid-sized security environment, it is essential that you are aware of the suites scalability. This crucial knowledge will provide you with priceless, simplified implementation and management. CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection and McAfee's Total Protection tackle this fundamental criterion, as seen below.

CA's Total Defense scales seamlessly for small to mid-sized businesses. This multi-layered proactive solution offers zero-day protection for all sizes of environments, distinctively focusing on preventing threats for small to mid-sized companies stemming from the gateway and various endpoints.

Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection is a great fit for mid to large size businesses. This commanding, blended solution offers a wide range of security for enterprise intensity. With its range of components, this concentrated solution provides you with a vast opportunity of configurability.

McAfee's Total Protection has an architecture that will grow with the organization and protect it now and into the future. This flexible suite presents an endpoint solution that is impenetrable and continuous in protection for companies ranging from small to enterprise, in size.

Ease of Install and Use:

After comparing CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection and McAfee's Total Protection suites based on their product features, supported systems and scalability- you are prepared to move forward with your comparison of each products ease of install and use. It is crucial to be aware of how much effort needs to be relegated to deployment, initialization and management and essential that a suite provides you with ease of install and use. The subsequent detailed data provides you with this crucial comparison.

CA's Total Defense bundles three web based management consoles that are centrally managed, offering a simple, yet robust suite for install and use. As with Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection, the best way to analyze whether this product adheres to your network and use objectives is to download the trial that Symantec offers. CA Total Defense Trial Download. 

Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection has a management interface that is clean and well organized- offering easy accessibility and visibility of the management console and client, during install and use. The best way to analyze whether this product adheres to your network and use objectives is to download the trial that Symantec offers. Symantec Multi-Tier Trial Download. 

McAfee's Total Protection offers an integrated solution with a polished single web-based console. As with Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection and CA's Total Defense solution, the best way to analyze whether this product adheres to your network and use objectives is to download the trial that Symantec offers. McAfee Total Protection Download. 

Cost:

In today's strained economic times, you are undeniably aware of your security bottom line. With these monetary constraints at the forefront of decision making, it is crucial that you choose a solid suite that will reduce the cost of securing your environment, as well as, efficiently combat today's diversified threats. CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection and McAfee's Total Protection suites are able to competently address these valuable needs, as detailed below.

CA's Total Defense solution is available to you with the choice of two maintenance programs: the Enterprise 12 Month Support program and the Education/Government/Non-Profit 12 Month Support Program. These two maintenance programs provide you with 24/7 priority support and accessibility to free upgrades.  Moreover, multi-year maintenance contracts, along with your single year maintenance contract, are available to you from CA resellers, for additional savings. The three maintenance programs are broken down by list price, below.

Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection solution is available to you with the choice of two maintenance programs: the Essential 12 Month Support program and the Basic 12 Month Support. The distinction between these two maintenance programs is Essential maintenance provides you with 24/7 accessibility to support and Basic provides you with 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM accessibility to support.  Moreover, multi-year maintenance contracts, along with your single year maintenance contract, are available to you from Symantec resellers, for additional savings. The two maintenance programs are broken down by list price, below.

McAfee's Total Protection solution is available to you with just one simple maintenance program: the Basic 12 Month Support program. This program provide you with 24/7 support. Moreover, multi-year maintenance contracts, along with your single year maintenance contract, are available to you from McAfee resellers, for additional savings. The three maintenance programs are broken down by list price, below.

Added Value:

Maximizing your purchase of a comprehensive, multi-layered suite requires comparing the added value and distinguishing technology of each product. CA's Total Defense, Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection and McAfee's Total Protection, respectively, offer distinctive value in their suites, as seen below.

CA's Total Defense offers a unique product, Host-Based Intrusion Prevention (HIPS), which provides five threat protection protection technologies in one endpoint combination: desktop firewall, intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, operating system security and application controls. This blended solution is an industry leader- providing you with a product that is delectable in nature, via a single, intuitive console that will enhance your protection.

Symantec's Multi-Tier Protection delivers Brightmail Gateway, which addresses inbound and outbound messaging security or email and IM, with effective and accurate antispam and antivirus protection, advanced content filtering, and data loss prevention technology. This distinctive feature is new to Symantec's blended solution and is available in two forms: a physical appliance and a virtual appliance called Symantec Brightmail Gateway Virtual Edition.

McAfee's Total Protection is easily managed with its distinguished ePolicy Orchestrator. This web based console enables you to manage policy, enforce security, make updates, and improve your security visibility. This mature technology will assist you with minimizing your operational cost and increasing management visibility.  

Conclusion:

As an IT professional within a small or mid-sized company, you are the company's vanguard- responsible for its data and prevention of confidentiality breeches. In addition to meeting these technical objectives, you are accountable for monitoring the cost of purchasing numerous solutions. This accountability is often considered to be an extraordinary undertaking; however, you now possess the resources to accomplish the task of choosing a multi-layered, comprehensive solution, which will provide your company with vital tools to protect it from ever present security threats.