META Group today announced the availability of its newest METAspectrum evaluation for the anti-virus market. The anti-virus market comprises software and services for detecting, filtering, and removing viruses and malware (malicious scripts, backdoors, trojans, and snooping/spyware files) and for restoring damaged files.
"Viruses are the most prevalent security threats to enterprise integrity," says Les Stevens, Practice Leader, Security and Risk Management with META Group Consulting. "We expect the market for anti-virus products to grow 10% to 20% per year. Vendors with solid solutions in the high-growth areas - storage-area network (SAN), Linux, e-mail and Web gateways - will experience success as they broaden their penetration."
Organisations must budget for products/services and internal resources to continuously manage and enhance anti-virus defences. Aggressive negotiations can lower the cost of ownership of anti-virus defences, but organisations must also ensure budgets exist to administer and plan an active virus defence.
Key findings and guidance
The anti-virus market is rapidly maturing to the point of saturation, and vendor consolidation has narrowed the shortlist to the five vendors evaluated in this METAspectrum. The analysis found:
* Trend Micro, Symantec and Network Associates/McAfee are the leaders in the enterprise anti-virus market.
* Global 2000 companies are seeking vendors that are dedicated to anti-virus and security for large enterprises, with ongoing investment in R&D and a track record of product innovation.
* End-users must balance the ease of management and lower cost of anti-virus suites against the added security of multiple anti-virus scan engines.
* By year-end 2004, leading anti-virus vendors will offer comprehensive anti-spam software through acquisition or integration.
* Successful vendors will incorporate other forms of content management (anti-spam, URL and mobile code filtering) at the enterprise gateway and will offer integrated personal firewalls and personal intrusion detection at the client, to enhance value and lower enterprise costs.
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