Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product) vs. SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA)

In large deployments, I have found Microsoft Forefront to be very effective at combating the majority of threats faced by our users. It provides the base platform for catching threats that would otherwise threaten our users and their data. If you have an environment that is under constant malware threat, then a secondary program may be needed as required.

Incentivized

SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) is well suited as a solution for VPN on your phone. It allows our agency's employees to access our data and system from almost any device at any time. SonicWall Secure Mobile Access (SMA) is less appropriate if you need to implement the product in a very short time frame, as it took longer than expected for rollout to staff.

Incentivized

• SCEP is a light weight client which is minimally impactful on the user end.
• Forefront's management console provides excellent monitoring and reporting.
• Setup and configuration is very easy.

Incentivized

• Secure remote access
• Control what access users can have
• Protect from harmful sites and downloads

Incentivized

• Malware detection is not quite 100%. We have to use a secondary program occasionally.
• On low ram and weak CPU systems scanning can freeze the machine.
• The same reporting tools that are on the console version, aren't on the client.

Incentivized

• SMA is limited to only SSL VPN , it should have support for hybrid VPN (SSL + IPSEC)
• There are different specs and features for Enterprise and SMB. Features should be same for all devices.
• It does not have URL filtering, content filtering, AV/IPS and Threat Prevention features. For achieving the same, we need to deploy another product like firewall or proxy.

Incentivized

The biggest advantage that MSF and SCEP provide over Norton is: One: Far less client overhead required. Both Norton and McAfee are highly intensive client side when in use. Two: We've had far better luck using the Microsoft system with its detection capabilities, versus the others. Three: It is tied right into the Microsoft updating system, which provides central updating capabilities of av/mal/windows updates.

Incentivized

Both Citrix Gateway and Sonic Secure Mobile Access are great for providing your workers with the ability to work remotely during the pandemic to access their office network. Both have secure networks and are stable systems to use. They both perform well for employees and provide helpful customer tech support when needed.

Incentivized

• Less turnaround on virus based issues.
• Helps reduce malware issues over time.
• Can breed overconfidence in the system, so people don't always try a second tool.

Incentivized

• Security incidents went down by about 30%.
• With the new world of hybrid work, this SMA functions well and is a necessity.
• We've had a few issues with patches breaking functions.

Incentivized