This handles not just anti-virus, but a wide collection of other protective features including device and application control, network-based intrusions, and phishing attacks. It can also scan virtual machines too.
Owner at David Strom Inc.
All-in-one endpoint security
Pros and Cons
- "This handles not just anti-virus, but a wide collection of other protective features including device and application control, network-based intrusions, and phishing attacks."
- "The reputation system relies on having a constant Internet connection for its operations."
IT Security Engineer at Biztronz
All the features are valuable
Pros and Cons
- "All the features are valuable."
- "The client agent is not stable. I have to keep fixing it on four to five percent."
Buyer's Guide
Symantec Endpoint Security
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about Symantec Endpoint Security. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Responsable de Infraestructura at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Useful against the day-to-day viruses and security threats
Pros and Cons
- "Confidence and stability are the most valuable features."
- "The custom reporting and real-time monitoring (the customizable dashboard) need improvement."
Information Security Manager at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
It has excellent intrusion prevention features. It has an intuitive management GUI.
Pros and Cons
- "I would advice choosing this product because it is very easy to deploy, has a performance host IPS and antivirus engine, and it provides a key source for security metrics."
- "SEP could improve on virus detection, specially on Zero-Day threats."
Senior Security Administrator at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I like the intrusion prevention and sonar features. The deployment mechanism needs work.
Pros and Cons
- "I like the intrusion prevention and Sonar features."
- "As a service-centric company, we have advised Symantec endpoint solution to various clients, and they have been satisfied with the quality Symantec offers."
- "Multi-domain policy options for exceptions and global blocks."
- "The Symantec agent is bulky in comparison to various vendors. It creates stability issues."
Systems Project Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Uses both SONAR and IPS to help protect the system.
Pros and Cons
- "No maintenance is required after a successful installation phase."
- "It is more than a classic Anti-virus solution: both SONAR and IPS help to protect the system."
- "The management of the server is a bit complex."
Info Sec Consultant at Size 41 Digital
Real User
Top 5Apr 12, 2017
Problem free and effective AV
It is unacceptable for an organisation to be without some form of Anti-virus protection. Symantec Endpoint Protection was a product we picked because we were coming off of Sophos as the charity discount expired. Charities tend to shop around for AV yearly to take advantage of discounts to standard pricing.Whilst this means install costs (time and/or money) it means we get to experience a lot of products and vendors. Now, that is a good and bad thing.
We had some teething problems on install. It wasn't the product at fault per se but the IT Company who installed a 2011 version instead of the current 2013 version. This resulted in multiple BSOD for our W7 users. I used Symantec support and logged an online ticket. Literally, within 10mins I had a call from a Symantec support engineer. I supplied the log files. 20mins later I had a suggested fix - which was an install of the correct version. I then had another couple of calls over the next week to check that the problem was corrected. Yes, our fault but it did highlight the level of support Symantec give you. This is a small thing to watch out for.
My issue with AVs is they can be like running a marathon in treacle - slow and unpleasant. Symantec didn't have that problem. It was inoffensive, with minimal pop-ups and scans that didn't slow down machines running W7, dual core and 3GB RAM. There aren't the best user machines in the world but they had no problem handling the installed AV.
The management console on the server kept track of any recurring issues and e-mailed reports to me. It also highlighted an infection on someone's machine in real time. This allowed me to get to the user and pop them on a laptop whilst we scrubbed the virus. The graphical reports were handy to provide proof of any KPIs for my monthly reporting process.
Endpoint protection is more than just AV. It features Symantec Insight and SONAR. They basically deal with zero day threats - okay, it simply won't catch everything but I've yet to find an AV that will. It's performed just fine. We had the odd catch and then it bubbled under the surface, tirelessly checking our systems for bad stuff. This is a great way of reducing reputational risk to your organisation.
Browser protection did prevent some users visiting scam sites or those genuinely deemed to be distributing malware (that we then blocked using OpenDNS).
Updates were pushed via GUP (group update provider) and any machines that, for whatever reason, were not included, ended up on my report.
Our W7 machines, Servers and the Macs were able to be protected. Yes, this is common these days but it's worth a mention. It also handled our VMs well - some of them using quite ancient software.
On the whole it did exactly what it was meant to do - protected the servers and end users seamlessly and gave us access to reporting that meant showing we'd hit KPIs was easy.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Information Security Senior Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It's made the work environment more secure, and reduced the number of malicious malware attacks.
Pros and Cons
- "It's made the work environment more secure, and reduced the number of malicious malware attacks."
- "There were issues, and they should ensure that the product updates automatically, especially in the DMZ."
Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Aug 15, 2013
Symantec Endpoint Protection and VDI
A few months ago we started getting storage latency alarms coming from vCenter. This would happen every day around 6am, and as we scaled our production environment this became worse and worse. I think the record latency was 19,000ms (no joke…. 19 seconds of storage latency). Now one would immediately think, “Well that’s what you get for using scheduled scanning”…. Hold your horses partner, this has nothing to do with scanning.
We soon learned that SEPM was pushing virus definition updates to our linked clones all at the same time. Obviously, the disk could not keep up with the demand. Many could argue that we should be looking at vShield with TrendMicro. However, when you’re part of an organization with 70,000+ endpoints (non-VDI), changing your antivirus vendor is not a decision you should take lightly. We took the position of, “Hey, Symantec is an industry leader in endpoint protection, they ‘have’ to have a solution!”.
They are “getting there”… Last March, they officially announced that Symantec Endpoint Protection adds vShield Integration & Increases Security Effectiveness. However, this does nothing for your environment in regards to virus definition updates. As a matter of fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing this version does is offload your active scanning from the VM. What about organizations that do not use active scanning, rather use real-time scanning?
If you’re rolling out VDI and you’re seeing extra storage demand due to definition updates, here’s a solution that I believe works well.
- On your parent image, clean off the client identifiers by running ClientSideClonePrep.exe
- Exclude your base image from scanning by executing “vietool.exe c: –generate”
- In conjunction with running vietool.exe, you need to have the “Enable Virtual Image Exception for Auto-Protect” and “Enable Virtual Image Exception for Administrator-Defined Scans” enabled on the SEPM server (see image 1).
- You should consider placing your linked clones into a different collection on the SEPM console and change the randomization interval. An interval that seems to work well in VDI is 12 hours (see image 2). This setting of course is something that you need to adjust for your environment. Smaller environments may be able to get away with six hours. I personally think that it’s best to be safe and keep this setting at 12 hours.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Symantec Endpoint Security Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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Updated: May 2026
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Symantec Endpoint Security Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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