The new Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition, available in Summer 2010, will provide SMBs with complete protection including end-point and messaging security as well as desktop, laptop and server backup and recovery to ensure business continuity.
The security vendor is giving SMB customers more choices for protecting their growing businesses with hosted options for email and Web security and new lower pricing for Symantec Protection Suite Small Business Edition.
Saurabh Arora, regional manager – small and medium business at Symantec MENA, says: “SMBs today are handling valuable information and having the right information at the right time can mean the difference between success and going out of business. Cybercriminals are going after SMBs, and those who are only using antivirus as a security solution are not protected completely, putting their businesses at risk. Today’s SMBs need complete protection that can be easily deployed and managed while providing the highest level of protection.”
Ray Boggs, VP, small and medium business research at IDC, says SMBs are especially vulnerable to security threats because they don’t typically have the time, money, or IT resources to implement the kind of comprehensive security that large companies have access to. “Downtime—whether it’s due to a malware attack, a server crash, or a loss of confidential information via email— can be costly to a company of any size, but is even more critical to an SMB that faces tight margins and increasingly intense competition," Boggs says.
Information is critical to businesses of all sizes and SMBs are facing increased risks to their confidential information— including bank account numbers, credit card information and customer and employee records. Now more than ever, cybercriminals are going after the smaller businesses that do not have the high-level security of their enterprise counterparts.
A 2009 Symantec survey found that while SMBs are familiar with the information risks they face, a surprisingly high number have yet to take even the most basic steps towards protecting their businesses. The survey found that 50% do not have endpoint protection and 47% were not backing up their data.
Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will provide SMBs with a new level of complete protection, helping them safeguard their businesses from external threats, internal threats and information loss—threats that traditional antivirus products can’t address. The suite will protect endpoints like laptops and desktops, provide messaging security, and can prevent data loss with advanced content filtering at the mail gateway. In case of an outbreak or a system failure, the suite’s backup and recovery capabilities will help SMBs recover individual files and folders or complete Windows systems quickly, even to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments.
Symantec has announced new enhancements to its SMB protection portfolio, providing SMB customers with greater choice and flexibility for protecting the information that drives their businesses.
