Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance [WSA]), powered by Cisco Talos, protects by automatically blocking risky sites and testing unknown sites before allowing users to link to them, helping with compliance. It is available models S690, S390, and S190.
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Trend Micro Apex One
Score 8.5 out of 10
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The Trend Micro Endpoint Security platform Apex One (formerly OfficeScan) provides antivirus and malware detection, and endpoint visibility. The product suite can be extended with associated applications that cover mobile endpoint protection, endpoint encryption, as well as network and server vulnerability protection.
We have both scenarios where we can describe that. For example, in the HQ, where we have about 3,000 users, Cisco IronPort Web Security Appliance is the ideal solution, because we can consolidate all the Internet access, policies, rules, etc. in the same box. However, if you have small offices with a few users, it's hard to justify one big and expensive box that could cost more than the whole office infrastructure.
Before Trend Micro OfficeScan we used Symantec Endpoint Protection and although it was very easy to deploy and to update agents it couldn't find a virus if you pointed it out with a neon sign. We were always getting hit with different viruses but since we migrated to Trend we no longer have that problem. Trend has definitely been preventing those kind of outbreaks successfully.
The product has two important aspects, centralized console and an agent which is typically installed on every machine. When the product is installed on a dedicated server then all computers can readily get updated while in the same network (provided the agent is installed on every machine). This helps the machine to avoid any kind of virus attacks.
Even if the machines are not in the same network where the console is being run it can directly get all updates from the Trend Micro server directly and the machine is still protected. Hence, it is not necessary that users have to visit the office or internal network to get the update, once the agent is installed on the machine then they can get the update from anywhere as long as the machine has access to the Internet.
Once the agent is installed on the machine the users can themselves do a full scan and even check the logs themselves.
I think that the interface could need updates to adapt it to a much more current system, achieve quick access to necessary tools and adapt the platform to a much more customizable and comfortable system to work with.
It is undoubtedly a platform that is worth having, however, the license costs could be better adjusted to small businesses so that it can be accessed more easily.
It could be a bit complex to use, the use of codes is quite extensive, it could be adjusted to something much more practical but just as efficient.
Only thing I would have to say that's negative is the reporting aspect. Basic reporting is good but still lacks some details. This is a problem with many of the software vendors I have encountered in the past as well. Reporting is still much better than most.
It is very easy to stick with a vendor year after year, and it is also easy to see the faults in a product and want to change. This is the first time I have renewed with an antiviurs provider as others have been less than ideal and caused issues where there were none before, so while it isn't perfect, it is the best of the bunch currently and I am hopeful that it will continue to improve in future versions.
Because it's one of those products you almost don't realize it exists from the end user. From the administrator perspective, you can do everything on its web interface and it's very intuitive to manage, once you know the concepts behind identities, acls, etc. Also, once you build the control structure, I mean, you link 'local' groups with your own Active Directory groups, as we did here, you don't need to be managing those things on the appliance itself.
Our experience with Cisco's support was terrible. Other than the fact that they don't respond to service-related emails with urgency, they also keep on changing the policies that affected us. Recently, they came up with a new look for the same software, which was insanely slow. Renewal of keys for the old interface took months. Overall, the support was not very friendly from the users' point of view.
It has been difficult at sometimes, the support people at one point told me that they couldn't tell me information about OfficeScan because it was knowledge that was passed down from engineer to engineer. The issue was that if you used the msi for the install any further installs would require the msi to have the same exact name or else the install fails and corrupts the install. This information is not listed anywhere on trends website. Support kept trying to get me to use the exe for installs instead, but we use SCCM and msi's work better. We had to write a script to come up with a solution so that we could uninstall the software and install the new software. Trend did provide the technical expertise to help with the script and had us work with one of the developers in order to resolve that issue. So they did fix their screw up but it took a while and several complaints.
At home I have a McAfee service that does similar tasks and helps manage the users of my internet. McAfee seems more user friendly and easier to set exceptions.
For me, Trend Micro Apex One with its low performance is the best option at the time to buy a solution like this, with its flexibility through on-premises or saas deployment options you can choose the option that best fix to you, has an advanced automated threat detection and response against an ever-growing variety of threats.
Security! Security! Security! We are financial company that work with very sensitive information. A lot of unsafe traffic was blocked on the Cisco IronPort WSA over years of using it. We did not earn on it but absolutely sure that we did not lose 'gazillion' of dollars being infected or scammed.
Easy to configure and use, no need to teach new personnel how work with this product (hopefully saving time = saving money).
Unfortunately the price of license subscription made financial managers push IT dept. to look for something cheaper.
Since the product is a full suite of protection rolled into a single product, we've seen ROI through cost reduction and simplified management. And while we haven't measured performance, one would logically assume that systems will perform better with a single product installed vs several.
While we haven't measured performance, one would logically assume that systems will perform better with a single product installed vs several.
