Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection is a malware, spyware, antivirus and endpoint protection application available formerly with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), which later became Microsoft Endpoint Manager. It is a legacy product, with older versions reaching end of support, and is not available as a standalone product.
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Carbon Black Endpoint
Score 8.8 out of 10
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The VMware Carbon Black Endpoint solution (formerly Cb Defense) is an endpoint security and "next-gen antivirus (NGAV)" that uses machine learning and behavioral models to analyze endpoint data and uncover malicious activity to stop all types of attacks before they reach critical systems. Endpoint Standard captures and stores endpoint activity, enabling a comprehensive view of any suspicious activity on endpoints, including visibility into the entire attack chain, so users can understand the…
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Pricing
Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint
Editions & Modules
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No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection
Carbon Black Endpoint
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint
Considered Both Products
Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection
No answer on this topic
Carbon Black Endpoint
Verified User
Analyst
Chose VMware Carbon Black Endpoint
We evaluated 3 other competitors and determined that Cb Defense was the best "bang for the buck" when it comes to Next-Generation Anti Virus. Their support (and sales) teams have been very helpful and offered a tremendous level of transparency. Our sales representative went …
It is well suited in environments that want a simple AV product/solution that, for the most part, can be easily deployed to client endpoints. It is also good for environments that want something that is easy to use by end-users, and also doesn't use a whole lot of system resources. It is less suited for environments that want an AV solution that is more robust feature-wise, or has more configurable options for the end-users. It is also less suited for those organizations that want an AV product to have the highest detection rate in the industry.
Cb Defense has been working very well in our organization. It is giving us much better insight into the applications that people are running on their systems (without authorization). This software is also great because it provides visibility into systems that are remote (off the network but still have Internet access). The out of band feature is great to help ensure that the systems are protected even when a user is traveling.
Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection offers exceptional threat protections for signature-based "known" threats.
The signatures are constantly updated and management of this application is super easy with the use of Microsoft SCCM.
The application is very much a "set it and let it" type of deployment. Once you install it, there are very little configuration or changes that need to be made.
History of Process Execution, really anything that happens in the system is easily seen within the Dashboard. I can determine if a bad actor has infected the system, be it malware, backdoor, rootkit, Trojan, then from that point, I can put the system into Quarantine.
Being able to quarantine the system from the Dashboard. With these type of tools, pulling the power and running a hard drive image is not needed. Put the system in quarantine, start the analysis. A year ago, the network engineer might move the system into a VLAN that has no access to anything, except the system performing the remote analysis... Now I do not have to rely on anyone to move a system, power it down, pull the drive, or image the drive. I can just start the analysis right from my workstation.
The Live Response, again goes hand in hand with the quarantine feature.
By now, I am sure you see a process. Its simple, and easy and all done from a cloud-based console, called the dashboard. .. deploy the agent, create the policy, and active live response, set up email alerts, and monitor your endpoints... you are now ready to perform a triage in the event of an infection. We have step 1, step 2, step 3... but, just remember, things do happen, nothing is perfect, but this product has its advantages.
The product could improve in the area of having better mechanisms in place with how the SCEP client is deployed/installed from the server on the management side. We have run into this firsthand with the client not installing on an endpoint, and then having to take the time to investigate why it was not installing.
A second improvement that can be made is to keep trying to improve the products detection rate for finding malware/viruses. The case can be made that there are some products out there that do a better job at this and have a higher detection rate.
Policy management can be cumbersome. It is simple to set up a single policy but you have no way to apply the rules to multiple groups. If you need to set up the same rule to multiple policies, you need to type it over again.
Agent updates can be very slow to deploy. We use a mix of rolling out updates via the web console and our management appliance. It can take several weeks to update all agents.
We can be confused on why a rule will apply to a file. Sometimes something is blocked but we don't understand why.
The console of the product is very easy to use. It provides great detailed information about all aspects of things occurring on the endpoint. It was easy to deploy and set up. The centralized cloud-based interface has made it easy to add two domains and manage them under a single pane with multiple admins. The only reason I wouldn't give it a higher score is a little bit of lag between updated info from the clients and also the lack of accountability in the deployment process. You set the deployment up for multiple machines and can't easily see if it was successful and/or it takes a while to see if it succeeded or failed.
There was a time and a place in which Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection was an excellent choice to provide threat protections. However, now that threats have been evolving, so too does the need for more advanced protections. In its current offering, it just no longer meets the needs of our organization in terms of providing protections against threats.
First, I need to disclose that our support is provided by SecureWorks. We purchased CB Defense from them, and they provide 24x7 monitoring and notification services for the solution and its deployment on our endpoints. To date, we are very pleased with this arrangement
How SCEP stacks up against some of the other AV solutions/products is that it does a pretty good job overall (not the best in the industry) at detecting/removing malware, which is the main focus for a product like this. It is also easy to use on the end-user side, which can't be said for some other AV products on the market. I was not involved with the selection/purchase of the product in the organization, but I'm almost certain the organization selected this based on the tight integration with Microsoft System Center Manager, which is used in the organization. Also, given the fact that SCEP is tightly integrated and works well in organizations that utilize Microsoft products, it was probably another factor in selecting this. Lastly, the cost of licenses was probably lower (because of System Center already being in place) than other AV products.
Cb is cloud-based and has a more advanced policy management. It also has better forensics information. Cost was similar, but Cb added cost savings in terms of IT management resources. We also have the ability to talk directly with engineers and have input on feature updates.
There was little/no cost associated with this software since we are utilizing SCCM and are paying license costs for that anyways.
The level or protection is excellent for the cost of the software.
There was at least one instance in which Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection identified a crypto-malware, but not before it had already started to encrypt many of our files. So it did detect the threat, but since it was a little delayed we still were infected.
