Security vendor McAfee is making a push into the SMB security space with a line of McAfee UTM Firewalls and a new SAAS offering it says could cut costs for businesses. The McAfee Web Protection Service includes anti-malware capabilities and reputation-based filtering.
McAfee has its eyes on the small and midsize business market with a push
based on software as a service and unified threat management.
The focus on SMBs follows a similar move by Symantec, which recently
announced plans for an
SMB-focused
version of Symantec Endpoint Protection. In McAfee's case, the company is
pushing a new line of UTM firewalls as well as a cloud-based McAfee Web
Protection Service that it contends could cut costs for both SMBs and
enterprises.
"The McAfee UTM Firewalls, formerly referred to as SnapGear, are
multifunctional network security appliances" that come "fully
integrated with intrusion prevention, network firewall protection and VPN
services," McAfee said in a news release. The company's Web Protection
Service is based on McAfee's Web Gateway technology formerly known as WebWasher,
and includes anti-malware features
as
well as reputation-based filtering that makes use of McAfee's TrustedSource
network.
The main pitch for both offerings is that they offer cost-saving
opportunities for businesses, with
the
cloud service cutting costs related to staff and equipment and the UTM
appliances reducing the need for multiple point products.
From a feature standpoint, the firewalls have new centralized management, 3G
wireless support, and intrusion detection and prevention capabilities. The
idea, McAfee officials said, was to provide a device that could be deployed as
a firewall, VPN gateway or UTM security appliance.
"Unified threat management devices continue to be in high demand and
are the [predominant] security appliance that SMBs will be looking for in
2009," Chris Christiansen, an analyst at IDC,
said in a statement.
Users of the cloud service can authenticate transparently in the cloud
without the use of additional on-premises hardware or software. Through a policy
manager, organizations can set specialized Web policies for employee groups and
select, for example, the time of day certain policies will be enforced.
"Increasingly, our clients are looking to us to provide them with a
variety of delivery options for receiving best-of-breed Web security," Marc
Olesen, senior vice president and general manager of McAfee's SAAS business, said
in a statement. "The McAfee Web Protection Service incorporates all of the
knowledge and experience we've gathered through years of proven Web security
and anti-malware protection."
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