Network Associates--McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 7.0 & ePolicy Orchestrator
The installation of VirusScan was quick and straightforward on the target server, however the installation of ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) while not particularly difficult is quite a long-winded process. Admittedly our target server did not have a resident database so ePO had that little chore as well, but even so there were a total of three system reboots and rather long file copy procedures before it was all over.
The AV engine, VirusScan, has a very simple and basic interface--finding your way around it is relatively simple. Manual scans from the console are not really possible in the strict sense of the word; you must create a "task" and then run it to perform the equivalent of, for example, "quickly scan this folder". Of course you can simply right click on the target folder or drive and select the "scan for viruses" option from the drop down menu. All the usual functions can be configured or defined such as actions to carry out upon detection, when and what items are to be scanned and this includes archive files and user-defined file types rather than the time wasting "all files". The scan engine has heuristics to help detect unknown worms and macros and there is a simple but effective Alert configuration that allows the user to define the various alert types, the response and the recipients.
Deployment and administration is handled by ePO and to be blunt, while ePO is very powerful, its ease of use and steep learning curve leave quite a lot to be desired when compared to some of the other packages. Admittedly it did not help that the CD-R version of the software we received was damaged and not all the documentation was accessible.
If you are a small business with, say, a single domain and 300 or fewer PCs there is a small business wizard that takes a lot of the pain out of the configuration in that the downloading of the ePO agent to the PCs and the subsequent push of VirusScan are simplified. But start talking multiple domains and a substantial number of PCs and the basic configuration tasks are up to the administrator.
The basic steps are to first download the relevant packages to the repository using the "check in package" task. Configure ePO to push the ePO agent onto the client PCs in your domain and then run the "deployment" task after you first configure its schedule and the packages to deploy.
Once the whole shebang is initially configured, it's all relatively easy to administer and manage. Indivudual PCs can be targeted and their AV configuration tweaked remotely or a configuration policy can be applied at the Domain level to filter on down to the PCs contained therein.
Should an outbreak occur, with ePO you can scan or update your entire Enterprise quickly and define an on the fly outbreak policy to lock everything up tight until you have a chance to suss out ePO's detailed reports and design a gentler policy that only protects the identified points of entry.
| Product | Network Associates—McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 7.0 & ePolicy Orchestrator |
| Price | $56.13 per node (at 101-250 node price) |
| Vendor | Network Associates |
| Phone | 1800 644 646 |
| Web | www.networkassociates.com |
| Interoperability |  ½ |
| Interoperability is strong but the installation and configuration of the software was more involved than most; interface not as logical as that of other vendors’ products. | |
| Futureproofing |  |
| Powerful feature set, but at times difficult to come to grips with. | |
| ROI |  |
| Cost per seat is low for 101 to 250 nodes. | |
| Service |  ½ |
| One year’s updates and business hours phone; e-mail and Web support. | |
| Rating |  ½ |
