Review: Panda Security Security for Enterprise

For: Once installed the administration was simple. Against: The documentation definitely needs some reworking. Verdict: The low price makes the Panda offering a great value, if you have the patience to use the support.

Panda Security for Enterprise fits in the category of network traffic protection. It also uses a tiered architecture, which seems very confusing at first, but becomes easier to understand over time.

The lack of understanding of the architecture made the initial installation difficult, but we finally realised that there were just two primary components: the adminsecure and the communications client.

The adminsecure is the heart of the offering. It offers several subcomponents, including the console, agent, repository, administration server and database.

Early in the install, we were trying to locate each of these features as separate pieces of software, but eventually we figured out that this was all just part of the adminsecure software. Each feature above performs a discrete function. The most critical function appeared to be the console, which created and distributed the policy, among other key tasks.

Once we were finished with the installation of the adminsecure server, the next step was to distribute the installation packages to the clients.

A unique component of the Panda offering was the fact that Novell and Linux clients can also be protected. The clients can be installed automatically on newer Microsoft operating systems, as well as on Novell servers.

The communications client uses TruPrevent technology. While Panda does not document in great detail how this technology works, it performed quite well when we tested the client's effectiveness against malware.

The documentation was slightly below average. The basic docs included the standard PDF files. While these covered the installation very well, they were lacking in depth and an explanation of the technologies, and also how to create more advanced configurations.

One way to offset poor documentation is to offer great support and that is what Panda does. Panda offers phone, email and web support 7/24 included in the purchase price of the product.

Panda Security for Enterprise has a list price of US$17.29 per device, which puts it at the very low end of the price spectrum.

See original article on SC Magazine US

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