by Debbie Lester

Created on: June 01, 2009   Last Updated: February 11, 2012

In today's e-commerce and technology field, small to mid-sized businesses face threats of many kinds, from root kits, bots, and spy ware, to blended threats and zero-day attacks. It is an ever changing security landscape. Companies and IT professionals are looking for comprehensive tools that will not only detect but also, repel attacks. Today it takes a lot more than just an anti-virus program to protect valuable company information and prevent confidentiality breeches. In this threat laden environment companies must choose products that minimize system resources, minimize the impact on users and increase lost productivity. For data security, where does an IT professional turn?

Market leaders in security offer many programs to choose from including Symantec's Endpoint Protection, CA's Total Defense, and McAfee's Total Protection For Endpoint Solution. Each of these programs offer IT professionals many different options when it comes to security. From anti-virus and anti-spy ware to firewalls and intrusion prevention. Each program has advantages and disadvantages and the IT professional must decide which programs best meet the needs of their companies.

Symantec's Endpoint Protection, is one of the most comprehensive solutions available for businesses. Endpoint Protection has so many options that it can be tuned to do exactly what a company wants it to. It is easy to install and performs at a very high level. CA's Total Defense combines four different CA products to provide multi-layered protection. It detects, analyzes, blocks and removes unwanted security threats. McAfee's Total Protection for Endpoint Solution provides a comprehensive end to end solution for business security. It has been recommended for small to mid-sized businesses who want endpoint protection without setting up a management infrastructure.

Ease of Install:

Symantec's Endpoint Protection has a small install package which takes as little as 15 minutes to initialize. Endpoint Protection can be installed in one of two ways. It can be installed directly onto specific workstations or it can be deployed through a server and pushed out to all network devices. The installation process is wizard based. It allows the administrator to set passwords and create a database on the first use. After the program is initialized it will appear in the management console and can be operated from this area in the future.

CA's Total Defense has an install period of one half hour. There is a first use tutorial

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