As the nature of the threat landscape in information technology continues to evolve, the channel seems to find itself with a greater number of potential threats to the enterprise every day.
But value-added resellers also find themselves with a greater number of solutions on a regular basis as well. The key to evaluating which products will both defend customer enterprises as well as prove to be VAR-friendly is whether those products can eliminate cost and complexity and provide stability.
BitDefender, a Bucharest, Romania-based company, has launched a one-two punch this year in an effort to engage more broadly with the North American reseller channel. On one hand, it launched the BitDefender Partner Advantage Network, geared toward providing technical and marketing support and new financial incentives to VARs. On the other, BitDefender launched its Business Solution Version 3.5 aimed at small and midsize businesses.
The CRN Test Center installed and evaluated Business Solution Version 3.5 on the test network in our lab. We wanted to pay particular attention to not just ease of deployment, but its ability to protect client nodes throughout a network.
The installation in a 64-bit Windows environment took several minutes, and included SQL Server 2005 Express. The installation was wizard-based, which we liked, and quickly had us in a position to launch the BitDefender Management Server console as a security command post for our small, 16-node test network.
BitDefender Management Console allows for configuration as either a standalone, which manages and centralizes client security, or as a master-slave configuration where a master server manages other BitDefender Management Servers as slaves. We installed it as a standalone. We liked it.
The familiar-looking console provided a left-pane menu to keep track of managed computers, unmanaged computers, excluded computers, and to track current policies and create new policies. It allowed for automation of network audits and reporting. Clearly, this is a solution that eliminates much complexity in the deployment of security across small and midsize enterprises.
We liked this product’s ability to install AV and security software across the network, even on unmanaged computers where there isn’t an installation of Active Directory. In the listing of unmanaged computers, a right-click on a node will allow a VAR or administrator to ping a client node, remotely install the client security software or simply exclude it from the network. In our opinion, developers of this software took measures to eliminate pain-points for value-added resellers and solution providers.
This is just one element of the BitDefender Business Solutions arsenal, which includes antivirus for Windows and Mac, firewall, antispam, e-mail security and more. We also ran and evaluated BitDefender Security for File Servers; that, too, was a quick installation that provided efficient scanning, scheduling and monitoring.
The bottom line: BitDefender has delivered the tools that VARs can deploy to drive efficiency and security management to smaller enterprises, and it’s done in a way that eliminates cost and complexity.
With the advent of virtualization, ever-growing numbers of mobility platforms, and continued growth in compliance requirements for enterprises of all sizes, it’s clear that even the smallest enterprises will require centralized security management. Bit- Defender Business Solutions 3.5, with its many elements, has become a must-consider when it comes to deploying business protection technology.
We also like BitDefender’s engagement in the evolving threat landscape. The company has become one of the first to raise red flags when global security threats emerge, such as the increase in malware threats associating themselves with last month’s death of Osama bin Laden.
BitDefender has placed itself in a position to not just grow mindshare but market share, and it’s doing so at a time when it’s also increasing its engagement with VARs. It’s time to check them out.
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