Item: Trend Micro Apex One
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Officescan is being used on 9000 + workstations and on some of our servers as well. We are currently in the process of migrating to Apex One from OfficeScan. OfficeScan is being used throughout the organization in all our remote offices and on our main campus. It is much more effective then Symantec Endpoint Protection was at catching viruses.

Pros and Cons

We were able to stand up an apex one server and migrate all of our settings from the current officescan server without any issues
The upgrades for apex one actually work without an issue, as compared to how they would constantly fail in officescan
The console is very similar so there was no learning curve
The method of upgrading the software from older versions to newer versions is much easier and no longer forces all the systems to reboot, it now gives an option for the end user to choose when to reboot

OfficeScan has a fault, if you use the msi to install it on you clients then you have to use the same name for the msi the next time you push the msi to upgrade the clients to latest version. This was supposedly fixed in apex one
OfficeScan forces the clients to reboot immediately when you enable upgrading of the agent through console, this is so far fixed in apex one
Enabling the firewall is confusing and the instructions on the website don't match up with how your supposed to enable it.
It seems to constantly need updates every few months, due to vulnerabilities or issues being found with the client

Return on Investment

The positive side is that we aren't spending time recovering from virus outbreaks because they are successfully being prevented
Apex One now has an easier way to upgrade the agents that doesn't force automatic reboots it prompts the user and lets them know that they need to reboot at their earliest convenience
You definitely need training on the product in order to be effective

Alternatives Considered

Symantec Endpoint Protection and Trend Micro Deep Security for the Hybrid Cloud

When comparing trend micro apex one to Symantec Endpoint Protection there is a definite and stark difference. Symantec cannot find or stop viruses but it has an easy to use agent upgrade management system. On the other hand Trend micro seems to find and stop numerous viruses including things that are not viruses. And the upgrading used to be an issue but it is supposed to be better now, in apex one.

Support Rating

It has been difficult at sometimes, the support people at one point told me that they couldn't tell me information about OfficeScan because it was knowledge that was passed down from engineer to engineer. The issue was that if you used the msi for the install any further installs would require the msi to have the same exact name or else the install fails and corrupts the install. This information is not listed anywhere on trends website. Support kept trying to get me to use the exe for installs instead, but we use SCCM and msi's work better. We had to write a script to come up with a solution so that we could uninstall the software and install the new software. Trend did provide the technical expertise to help with the script and had us work with one of the developers in order to resolve that issue. So they did fix their screw up but it took a while and several complaints.

Key Insights

Do you think Trend Micro Apex One delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Trend Micro Apex One's feature set?

Yes

Did Trend Micro Apex One live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Trend Micro Apex One go as expected?

Would you buy Trend Micro Apex One again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Symantec Endpoint Protection, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection

Likelihood to Recommend

Before Trend Micro OfficeScan we used Symantec Endpoint Protection and although it was very easy to deploy and to update agents it couldn't find a virus if you pointed it out with a neon sign. We were always getting hit with different viruses but since we migrated to Trend we no longer have that problem. Trend has definitely been preventing those kind of outbreaks successfully.

Trend Micro Apex One its better than Officescan

Overall Satisfaction with Trend Micro Apex One (formerly OfficeScan)