Symantec Endpoint Security vs. VMware Carbon Black Endpoint

Symantec Endpoint Security is a well-rounded product that provides a significant amount of functionality and covers many of our endpoint needs without needing to resort to multiple vendors that might clash in unpredictable ways when ultimately deployed to the endpoints in our estate. The default policies are adequate and tuning these requires some time as with all similar EDR products but the product is flexible enough to allow very granular whitelisting/blacklisting which is great. Low resource requirements are also fantastic and we've not had many complaints from developers who were getting slowed down when compiling complex code with other previous solutions.

Incentivized

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.

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

• 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.

Incentivized

• The system should have a better ability to auto repair, if an item is malfunctioning it should auto reinstall.
• The cloud platform and the server do not talk well to each other and it would be great to get the same data on both platforms, this may be due to version though.
• It seems the whitelisting on the cloud platform could use some work.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

Best of Breed. Symantec Endpoint Protection beats all other end point products I have used, tested and seen in presentation at this point in time.

Incentivized

I think it works great. It's easy to administer. It's easy to see if it's working and how well. There's no real user interaction necessary.

Incentivized

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.

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

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

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Symantec Endpoint Security offers very similar features to the above products, they all do the same thing in terms of protecting your endpoints against cybersecurity threats. Installation wise the products all install from a central management system and report back to this for central reporting. Ultimately we choose Symantec as the reseller was able to offer additional incentives which made their pricing very competitive.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• The ROI from deploying this has led to fewer security issues which reduces costs.
• Keeping track of security issues and how the were remedied is easier.
• Deskside support can work with end users easily if something is triggered and this allows us to not have to overstaff.

Incentivized

• Cb Defense has had a positive impact on the business objectives since we've been able to check off "advanced threat prevention".

Incentivized