Symantec Endpoint Security Reviews

I'm an IT consultant, so I implement Symantec Endpoint Protection for customers, from SMB up to large enterprises and federal government.

There are a number of features that all work synergistically to be able to provide the protection. Originally, anti-virus was based on definition. About 10 years ago, the bad guys figured out how to get past that. So what they've been doing for the past 10 years is adding in additional features to help mitigate any of these other attack vectors that the hackers or malicious people have. So it's just a working together of all these components that makes it special.

And then SEP itself fits into the Symantec ecosystem, and inter-operates with a number of other technologies to provide a comprehensive security portfolio.

I think the key thing for me, is interoperability, in that you can deploy it to Windows, Mac, and Linux. That's been a really important feature in the last two years. Now there's one management console to cover all three OSs.

There are two key aspects to how it has improved. One is the threats that it protects the organization from versus the amount of resource utilization; and two is that compatibility has increased.

They're just starting to get into this now, but I think they can do better - they're just starting out with I think is called the SEP Cloud Console. It has more limited functionality. It will be good once we can run SEP from the cloud. That would be good.

The big issues around stability were fixed back around 2010 or so. When the original SEP client was created, there were some challenges with the interoperability of the different components, because they took a number of different agents, put them into one agent, and then they broke things. With SEP 12 and forward, that all runs really well now.

From a scalability perspective, in Australia and New Zealand, where I'm using it, it can easily manage any workload that we've got. 

One of the challenges is people going the opposite way, that is, people trying to deploy Symantec Endpoint Protection - which is an enterprise level product - into a small business of a hundred users. It can introduce a lot of complexity that doesn't have to be there.

There are other solutions like SEP.cloud which can make it easier for small businesses to be able to use very similar technologies to Symantec Endpoint Protection.

Most times it's good, but there are instances where there are some challenges in that the people who you're working with don't know how to fix what you're doing. Then you have to ask for an escalation. Normally what I'll do is I'll work with my Symantec colleagues to help escalate any internal issues, where we see that things are getting bogged down in support.

From a Symantec technology perspective I'm very happy with it. However, the support can be wanting, for those reasons. Sometimes the time to resolution is longer than I would expect.

Based on the roles that I've had, I've been working as a Symantec consultant for 10 years, and so I've just been working with SEP. There are people who, as their consulting function would be an endpoint protection guy, would do McAfee, SEP, Trend, etc., whereas my strategy was different. I basically covered off all Symantec technologies. My intent was to be able to be specialized across the entire range of security technologies. I've only worked with SEP.

The initial setup is easy. That's one of the selling features, that you can roll it out in an hour. (They might say 15 minutes or something like that). But the initial rollout, setting up SEPM server, you can do in an hour. Then, the challenge is that you can make it as complex as you want after that. It's very, very capable, but it can get quite complex.

Symantec Endpoint Protection installation and Administration Guide is awesome. The documentation is good. They provide online training and you can also do instructor-led training. There should always be training available, or information available, to help you get where you have to go. That's one of the things I do like. 

I've been an instructor for Symantec for 10 years too, and I've taught the SEP course, and I think it covers off what you need to know.

From a simplicity perspective, it's per user. Therefore, it makes it easy to do licensing.

I'll be honest, I haven't really done licensing with Symantec for seven years. I just do professional services and we let our partners handle the licensing.

Back in the day, when I worked for a distributor, there were other products available, that were cheaper - this is more of a New Zealand example - but they didn't have the functionality. However, because of the small businesses we were working with, they were good enough. 

That is a challenge: having an enterprise product like SEP competing against a cheaper product like Sophos or ESET. The latter are cheaper, but you don't get quite the same scalability, functionality, etc.

Get competent consultants to do the implementation, because it can be complex. You have to have a consultant who is knowledgeable, to make sure they cover off all the bases, to make sure all the infrastructure is protected.

It saves time, in that a professional can get it done more quickly. And, it gets done correctly, so you don't have to do re-work. I've been in circumstances where the customers try to do the implementation themselves and then they bring us in after the fact, and we have to either redo what they've done or rebuild the infrastructure from scratch. That just doubles the cost of what it would have cost originally.

I would say this solution is a 10 out of 10. The big reason is the functionality. Personally, I've not had a breach or seen a breach. And it runs on the machine, and I can't even tell it's there.

We are a partner or distributor of Symantec Endpoint Protection. We use this solution for antivirus and cyber threat protection. Internally, we are using it to ensure that we receive security against all known attack vectors with efficacy, cyber defense at scale, high-performance client, and on-premises management architecture.

Endpoint Protection has improved our operations by protecting our servers from potential cyber threats.

The solution offers a Device Control policy to block all USB thumb drives and all USB hard drives. We use this feature for some areas here in the company and it's been great for us because these areas contain very important information and we are doing everything we can to avoid breaches, data theft, and data leaks.

We must have complete dissolution with advance care protection but we are finding out that we need more Symantec technical specialists. We have identified a need to hire at least one more technical specialist familiar with Symantec to improve our solutions capabilities.

Additionally, an endpoint detection response feature would be great but not with an additional license, it should be included as an additional feature. We have identified this as a solution that our customers are very interested in, but they don't want to purchase additional subscriptions.

The stability is great.

The scalability of the solution is great.

Currently, we have around 400 employees using this solution.

We haven't used their technical support. We receive support directly from Symantec here in Mexico and they are pretty responsive.

There were difficulties at the beginning with the setup. I wasn't directly involved with the initial setup but from what I heard, from the IT department, is that they encountered issues when attempting to create differentials between the principle, directors, and manager groups.

The deployment and improvements took two months to implement because we have branch offices all over the place.

Deployment required three people and support only requires one person; the IT manager.

Compared to other products and brands here in Mexico, the price is okay, somewhere in the middle. Our solution is unique in that it can adapt to a variety of pricing and licensing constraints considering we have the corporate, government, and academic mandates. The account managers here in Mexico always give us support in the form of applicable discounts and adjustments.

The management console is great. We only have only one person managing and controlling the console. It seems to be very user-friendly.

On a scale of one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best, I would rate this product a nine. To make it a ten, it should be free. The cost is restrictive to some degree.

Symantec End-User Endpoint Security is a good product.

It's a robust product.

There are several new products that offer better protection.

The artificial intelligence of Symantec End-User Endpoint Security could be better.

The web filter could be improved.

I have been using Symantec End-User Endpoint Security for more than 10 years.

It's a stable product, very robust.

Symantec End-User Endpoint Security is a scalable product.

We have 500 users in our organization.

I have not contacted technical support.

Apart from Symantec End-User Endpoint Security, I use other platforms. We have many different systems, such as Sandbox products, and other EDRs.

The installation is very easy.

I would rate Symantec End-User Endpoint Security a nine out of ten.

We are using Symantec End-User Endpoint Security for our network security.

The solutions' main features are patch management and security.

I have been using this solution for approximately five years.

The solution is not stable.

We had approximately 62,000 using the solution.

Since the division of the company, we have experienced a lack of support.

The installation is not easy.

I would not recommend this solution because of the new changed that they have made since the division of the company. The support has gone to Accenture and their product to Broadcom. It is a big change for the AV industry.

I rate Symantec End-User Endpoint Security a six out of ten.

We are using Symantec End-User Endpoint Security for our network security solution to protect us against threats, such as malicious software and websites.

The solution is easy to manage.

The solution already has support for Windows, Mac, and Linux but it could improve by having better support for Linux. We have run into some problems when there are upgrades. If they can improve this point, Symantec would be good for endpoint protection as well as for a critical server.

I have been using Symantec End-User Endpoint Security for approximately three years.

When we were not able to find a solution to issues we are having we have contacted technical support. There are times we created a support ticket in the morning and they respond in the evening when we are not available. However, they have been helpful and eventually provide us with a solution, it can take a bit of time.

The installation is not difficult for Windows and Mac OS it will autonomically install, based on the schedule we plan. However, for Linux, we could not do the installation from the Symantec manager and needed to install it one by one on the servers. 

One great benefit is we do not need to activate a license for every endpoint. The price is fair.

I have evaluated McAfee and Kaspersky.

Symantec was bought recently by Broadcom and this could be a reason some might not want to purchase the solution because of their background. However, this solution is popular and competitive with other solutions, such as McAfee or Kaspersky.

I rate Symantec End-User Endpoint Security a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the product for all of our desktops and laptops; we use it for security purposes - for endpoint protection.

The solution is constantly getting updated with the latest definitions. 

It's easy to get it across to all clients. The agent installation is very easy and the agent will talk to the server. 

It is very easy to managing everything in relation to the implementation and processing. The initial setup is very easy.

The solution scales quite well.

The solution has proven itself to be very stable over the years.

Technical support has been pretty good in general.

It would be great if the solution could match up with the competition's offerings - for example, making sure they are keeping up with, for example, CrowdStrike and other offerings.

They need to ensure they are continuously keeping up with cybersecurity trends.

If the next release contained advanced threat protection and EDR, et cetera, it would be really fantastic.

If the agent can be minimized so that it can work with in-memory concepts, that would be ideal. As of now, it is file-based, signature-based. If they should come with an in-memory option, it should work at the random-access memory level also. 

We've been using Symantec for the past two decades. It's been a long time. I have years of experience with the product.

The stability has been very good. We haven't had any issues in that respect. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. Its performance is very reliable.

The solution can scale if you need it to. If a company needs to expand it, it shouldn't be a problem to do so.

I can't speak to how many of our users are currently on the product at this time.

As of right now, we do not have plans to increase the usage within our organization.

Technical support has been very good so far. We find them to be helpful and responsive. We're quite satisfied with the level of support we get.

The initial setup is not overly complex. It is very simple and straightforward. A company shouldn't have any issues with the initial implementation.

We may switch to another solution and we are evaluating a variety of options currently. We have not come to a decision just yet. We simply want to see what else is on the market and how this product stands up to other solutions. We're mostly just curious to see what is happening in the space. We've looked at, for example, CrowdStrike, among others.

We are a customer as well as an end-user. We don't have a professional or business relationship with the company.

We only ever use the latest version of the solution. I'm not sure what version number we are on right now, however.

I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I am using this solution for protecting myself from outside dangers. I am not using it on a daily basis. I open it very rarely. I open it only when I get an alert that I have got a suspicious file or something like that. I then go to the quarantine zone to check it.

The most valuable feature is that I don't feel that it is there. It works in the background and doesn't interfere with my daily work. All the scans are done in the background. This is the biggest advantage of this product. 

It works because I have never been infected since I have been using this solution. Its interface is also very good.

It can maybe send notifications when there is an update and everything is successful.

We have been using this solution for the entire life of our organization. It has probably been ten years.

It is completely stable. There are no issues. I don't find it slowing my laptop. I don't know if my laptop is powerful or the application doesn't take too many resources. A few years ago, the antivirus was slowing down computers and laptops, but now, I don't feel any such issue.

We have about 700 employees in our company, and a lot of them are using the same protection system.

I have an IT department that gives me technical support.

We did not use any other products in our organization. We have only been using Symantec products.

I was not involved in its installation. It was set up on the laptop before I got it from the IT department.

I would recommend this solution to others. It is a stable product. I would keep on using it unless my company decides otherwise.

I would rate Symantec End-User Endpoint Security a ten out of ten.

Our primary use for this solution is for antivirus, website protection, and malware protection.

The most valuable feature for our organization is the antivirus, as our staff is the target of zero-day malware and viruses.

Better communication and coordination with Microsoft would help to prevent delays that are frequent when operating system updates are released. As it is now, when a new build from Microsoft comes out, we get warnings to say that certain applications are not compatible. We sometimes just have to wait until a new version of this solution is released in order for it to work properly. One of the problems is that Microsoft releases updates often, and sometimes they don't tell anybody. This can lead to the whole configuration being corrupted.

I would like to see a hybrid version of this solution that covers both in-house and cloud-based servers. 

This solution is very stable. It is "install and forget".

Once you install the solution on the server, it is very quick when it comes to updating the clients. Specifically, it sends packages really quickly to all of the clients to ensure that they have the latest build. It is transparent and quick.

This solution is constantly in use. It runs 24/7.

We have between sixty and seventy people, both IT and non-IT staff, who use this solution. The latter are primarily working in Microsoft Office and SharePoint environments.

The technical support is ok. You create a ticket and depending on what the issue is, and whether it is an emergency, they give it a level such as one, two, or three. After this, they take action and they are pretty good.

Most of the solutions to things like installation issues or other incompatibilities, they are quick on creating "How to" pages in their help.  

My understanding is that we were running Kaspersky before this solution was implemented, but I was not here at the time.

The initial setup is straightforward. Also, we have just updated, and the installation over the top of the old one was perfect. It saved all of the data that we had configured from the beginning, did a backup, installed the new version, and deleted the only one. It was good and simple.

The deployment takes approximately one hour, and one person can handle both deployment and maintenance.

We performed the installation in-house.

This solution protects us and we do not get any viruses, so this can be considered the return on our investment.

We receive a discounted price for this solution because we are a non-profit organization. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.

I was not at this company when the solution was selected.

My advice for anybody implementing this solution is to consider the rules that you want to define. Installation is straightforward, but you can make it simple, or you can make it pretty complex.

For example, you can set up specific groups for in-house or external users. You can also install clients that only touch base occasionally, such as logging into the internal environment once per year. It can also be used on Virtual Machines, where the client's resources are limited or restricted. In a hosted environment, it does not have to be installed on the individual VMs. It can run on the host and it will scan everything.

There is also a cloud version of this product out now, which covers people who are more cloud-based.

So far, I find that this product works pretty good.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.