» Topic:  Microsoft Unveils Antivirus, Antispyware Tools

» Added by:  Jaikumar Vijayan

» Date:  10.10.2005

  An integrated antivirus and antispyware tool that Microsoft Corp. plans to start shipping soon could appeal to small and midsize businesses. But larger enterprises are likely to wait for the technology to mature more before giving it a shot, users and analysts said.

Microsoft said last week that its Client Protection technology integrates an antivirus product that it acquired in 2003 from Romanian software maker GeCAD Software with an antispyware tool that came with its December 2004 purchase of Giant Company Software Inc.

A beta version of the tool will ship by year's end, and a full rollout is slated for early next year.

Both acquired tools have been available as free downloads since the beginning of this year. The integrated product will carry an as yet undetermined price tag, said Scott Stanzel, a senior product manager in Microsoft's security technology unit. Details will become available closer to the launch date, he said.

The new tool could be of interest to small businesses and home users, said Dmitriy Kalika, IT director at Amide Pharmaceutical Inc., a Little Falls, N.J.-based maker of generic drugs. But larger companies will wait to see if Microsoft's product improves on what's already available from pure-play security vendors, he said.

"Microsoft's track record with security has not been all that great. I would rather stick with somebody else" than go with Microsoft, Kalika said.

Security Market Entree

Nevertheless, Microsoft's latest announcement is another indication of the company's ambitions in the security tools business, said Andrew Jaquith, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston.

"It's a sign that Microsoft has looked at the aftermarket for Windows security and decided that it's too large for them to ignore," Jaquith said. "Antivirus and antispyware are multibillion-dollar markets, and Microsoft wants a piece of this."

Jaquith said it's ironic that Microsoft is making a move into a business that has been created largely as a result of holes in its own software.

Microsoft last week also said that it will integrate the same technology into a server-level antivirus product gained when it acquired Sybari Software Inc. last February.

Beta versions of the server product, called Antigen, will ship early next year. The tool is designed to protect Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes servers and Microsoft's Office SharePoint Portal Server from e-mail-borne attacks.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and security chief Mike Nash announced the products in Munich last week as part of the company's strategic security update. The event also included the formal launch of the Secure IT Alliance, a Microsoft-led group of over 30 security vendors that will work on better integration between their products and those from Microsoft.

The new products and alliances are part of the company's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which was launched in January 2002, Stanzel said.

source: computerworld.com