Symantec Encryption vs. Symantec Endpoint Security

We used this for our customers from car dealerships that dealt with credit histories, etc, through healthcare providers. It worked well to auto encrypt specific criteria. I would recommend to any company the use of Symantec Endpoint. From the ease of use for end users to the auto encrypt policies, this software is worth a try.

Incentivized

We have found that Symantec Endpoint Security is better suited to newer systems running faster processors and more than 8GB RAM otherwise the client agent takes up too many resources and slows the system down. However, if you have a reasonably modern fleet of systems it does everything you would expect from an Endpoint Protection solution and works well as part of a multi-layered cybersecurity policy.

Incentivized

• We can manage and view the status of each client from a centralized server.
• It sync passwords with the local Windows account so there are no additional passwords the user needs to remember.
• Our help desk is able to use the One-time password feature if the passwords get out of sync and the user is locked out.

Incentivized

• The virus and spyware protection has worked well for us, catching several things and quarantining the items or cleaning them.
• The virus definitions very rarely fail to update for the users, so I feel confident that my client machines are kept up to date.
• I like the report I get daily telling me about threats found and action taken without having to login to the console to look it up myself.

Incentivized

• User Interface
• Global Management
• Password Changes can be slow, and are confusing for end users. Perhaps a prompt to remind them to use their older credentials?
• New users complain about slowness due to the first time encryption process. This is to be expected. A on-screen notification to the end user encryption is currently happening would be nice.
• We require check-in every 60 days. Sometimes even though the device has been on the network the device fails to check in with the SEE manager.
• Cannot manage disks once drives have been encrypted. This is a part of the design but annoying. We twice had to expand out-of-space drives and could not due to the encryption. We had to decrypt the entire drive and then re-encrypt to perform this task.

Incentivized

• Removing dead clients from the console. This is nearly impossible to do, and makes keeping the console clean a very difficult task.
• Poorly tested versions are sometimes released that cause serious issues for users. This ranges from browsers malfunctioning to BSOD errors.
• Malware detection is good but not great. We are not confident in SEP by itself to neutralize malware threats. It's detection rate just isn't high enough for next generation and zero day threats.

Continued satisfied support. The saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it..." comes to mind. It works, and we'll continue to use it and support Symantec.

Incentivized

The rating reflects Symantec Endpoint Security's ability to balance enterprise grade security with user-friendly workflows or advanced configurations require extra effort. For most organizations, the streamlined management and robust automation justify the high score. Management GUI is old fashined and need to be improve. Older devices may experience slowdowns during full scans without careful configuration.

Incentivized

We've used it for years and the software is easy to use. The dashboard is easy to read, and you can easily figure out where to go to troubleshoot or deploy software. Symantec is there for emergencies like backup restoration or file retrieval. It's pretty low maintenance. Symantec is there when your IT infrastructure needs it

Incentivized

Support is completely awful! You can never get anyone to help if you can even find a number to call. The support web portal is a joke and their response time if you're even able to submit a ticket is ridiculously slow.

Incentivized

Use a third party deployment tool and not the deployment option within the SEP Manager itself.

Incentivized

Back in the day, Norton was one of the choices in the company; while now Symantec is being used as default in the global organization due to its advantages against the alternatives. Very briefly, Symantec provides more benefits especially when considered as a business-level solution.

Symantec Endpoint Security seems to be a more mature solution compared with CrowdStrike, particularly when CS was just recently getting their USB blocking functionality rolled out for macOS endpoints this year. Another differentiator with CrowdStrike is that Symantec ES still provides both on-demand scanning & real-time signature-based detection in addition to solely real-time machine learning detection whereas on-demand scanning and signatures are not available on CrowdStrike. This means there is a doubt as to whether we can use CS to comply with some of our PCI DSS obligations which specifically require the use of signature-based antivirus solutions.

Incentivized

• Allows our helpdesk staff to help users who forget their encryption passhprase or need other help with things
• Provides ease of mind for management with them knowing all devices are encrypted
• Easy to use for our end users

Incentivized

• Symantec [Endpoint Security] cost 50k less than other options while providing similar benefits over the last year
• Cylance conflicted with Symantec [Endpoint Security] and Cisco Umbrella Client (All 3 at the same time) causing us to rebuild many desktops
• Symantec [Endpoint Security] made it easy to detect where issues were and repair them

Incentivized