Likelihood to Recommend I think Kaspersky is well suited for large and small companies. Larger companies can take advantage of the KSC (Kaspersky Security Center) servers to help manage a large network. The KSC has many good features to help monitor the health of the organization. It does a good job with updating and deploying remotely. It has inventory features, and can even deploy non-Kaspersky software packages uploaded to the center. KSC can become a source of good information about [your] network that can be seen at a glance. IT departments are normally smaller than they need to be. KSC helps with larger and smaller companies because of this. A small company would appreciate the amount of information and management that can be done through KSC without needing extra help. If the company is small enough that they don't have servers on-site, there is a cloud version. I have not used that to know how it differs from the local KSC.
Read full review It is more suited to environments that have a large internal user base since there will be more incidents that require forensic analysis. It will be less suited for environments that have a small internal user base due to the fact that there would be fewer incidents that require forensic analysis, but it really depends on the industry that a small internal user base is a part of.
Read full review Pros The Security Center is laid out very well and makes it easy to install and manage the client endpoint protection on servers and workstations. The way security policies are defined and managed is very easy to understand. The client programs seem to be lighter and smaller on the client systems than others I have used in the past. Using fewer resources is always an advantage. Read full review Functionality meets minimal requirements, since it performs forensic investigations as advertised. Read full review Cons The PC imaging tools are difficult to set up and use Device Encryption tools are getting better, but are difficult to manage. The policies are powerful, but could be broken up. More help can be provided in what the policy element does within the policy setup Read full review Their UI definitely needs to be more user-friendly, right now it is very cumbersome to run and view investigations. Authentication mechanism should be a simple username/password, not certificate-based which is difficult to manage. Needs better support documentation for the product, it is difficult to find solutions to issues that we run into. Read full review Likelihood to Renew The product is stable and accurate in detecting security threats. There are very few or no false positives in detecting security threats or unusual behavior and has very sharp heuristics. The product does the job very well including saving us money in getting 3rd party patch management tools as the business is already using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager which is Microsoft product specific and the product patches these third party products e.g Adobe Flash Player
Read full review Usability The integration with a known solution is not good (Cisco ISE), product (10.x) does not automate remediation, however security is great and detects security threats with accuracy including heuristics, very few or no false positives
Read full review Reliability and Availability I've used the on-premise server. I've only experienced one time that we couldn't open the console, and that was a server issue. It seems to be a dependable solution. It's there, and it's stable.
Read full review Performance Users don't notice any slowdown with the antivirus running on their systems. There have been issues when the systems have missed a scheduled scan, and it was checked to run at [a] first available time, they will start a full scan at startup. This has caused some lag. Normally there are also some issues with the workstation, but it is something to note.
Read full review Support Rating I give the maximum grade because we have no complaints; we never had any failure, serious error, and serious threat to the company. All of its features work very well. The great advantage of having a product supported by an industry-leading security company is that regularly updated security protocols will protect the system against all emerging threats.
Read full review Because support is non-existent whenever you have a functionality issue using the product. Also since the UI is so cumbersome to use we could use as much support as possible. Whenever we ask for support we are told to take the training which costs us more money. I believe that support should be easily accessible and affordable for the client
Read full review Implementation Rating Make sure to provide awareness campaigns on changes that will be implemented and WHY the business is doing it and the benefits reaped. Benefits reaped is very important for the justification of why things have to change and emphasizing the importance of security. This will reduce user disgruntlement and total bitterness on use of their workstation or laptop
Read full review Alternatives Considered Kaspersky is a leader in endpoint protection, but its ties to potential adversaries are unsettling. Kaspersky has a great threat research team and quickly identifies malicious software and its signature. Its web-based protection is also top notch. This is a great product but as with everything has its place.
Read full review The other forensic tool that is a direct competitor to EnCase and wasn't listed above is the Forensic Toolkit or FTK. I believe that FTK is a better tool overall simply because it is easier to manage and use when it comes to investigations. Unfortunately, I wasn't part of the decision process and EnCase was the tool selected, otherwise, I would have recommended FTK.
Read full review Scalability You can create groups and create different policies for each group. You can customize many parts of the software before it is deployed. You can create different tasks and schedules based on the groups. It is customizable.
Read full review Return on Investment It reduced the incidents of infections and so reduced the efforts needed by the IT department to mitigate problems. It made it difficult to manage the security of our growing mobile user base due to infrequent contact with our on-premise management server. Read full review One negative impact would be that since the UI is cumbersome to use we would need to spend more money on training which is not always feasible. Another negative impact would be that since there is not much support available this slows down investigations due to finding out how to troubleshoot and fix functionality issues. One positive impact would be that since it meets minimal requirements when it comes to forensic analysis it gives us visibility on any malicious activity occurring on a user's endpoint. Read full review ScreenShots