Security-as-a-service extends to enterprise

By Staff Writer for Trellix
Johannesburg, 28 Jul 2009

Security solutions provider McAfee has released the latest version of Total Protection Service, a security-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. The solution offers always-on guard protection without additional investment in on-premise infrastructure.

According to McAfee, the harsh economic climate means businesses of all sizes often lack the security resources and budgets to manage and maintain a complete security solution. SaaS solutions save time and money with online deployment, real-time reporting and off-site infrastructure, says the company. Total Protection Service simplifies business security by automating updates and upgrades and reducing operational costs, ongoing maintenance and support.

"Total Protection Service is a key component of the McAfee security-as-a-service strategy," says Jayson O'Reilly, regional manager for Africa at McAfee. "With this release, we're broadening our SaaS offerings to enterprise customers. While small and medium businesses are very familiar with Total Protection Service, larger companies are realising the benefits of SaaS in helping them reduce operating costs while strengthening their security controls."

McAfee has more than five million users using its Total Protection Service and offers a range of threat protection available in a SaaS deployment, covering major threat vectors and scanning for Web application and network perimeter vulnerabilities.

McAfee Total Protection Service includes integrated endpoint protection (anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall), McAfee SiteAdvisor Web security, Web filtering and vulnerability scanning features. The new version will be available in August.

Access to the updated SecurityCenter management console also allows administrators to improve their visibility and management flexibility with customised dashboards of their security environment, says McAfee.

The company adds that the SaaS solution allows partners to become a managed security service provider. “Value-added partners look to McAfee to provide easy-to-deploy SaaS solutions to extend their security portfolio to include services and to generate additional revenue opportunities.”

The McAfee Partner Security Service programme, along with the Web-based Partner SecurityDashboard, provides the necessary applications to ensure the order administration and remote management of Total Protection Service is easy to use, the company concludes.