4 Best Corporate Antivirus Software for Small Businesses

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In an organization, ensuring the reliability of data is of utmost importance especially on the senior levels. One wrong file is copied or executed and the safety of the network is compromised. Especially when new viruses are made each new day and one has to wait months to get a patch for them by the antivirus companies, these type of loopholes simply cannot be given. The data available to the organization is so much important that leaving it without any security is equal to taking unnecessary risks where one is bound to fail.

business security for all devices
business security for all devices

Why Corporate Security?

Here a point arises that Windows 10 comes with its default antivirus, Windows Defender or even we have lots of free antivirus choices, why do we need a paid corporate solution for our office? Here are a few possible reasons for selecting corporate security instead of free or paid individual antivirus.

Centralized Management System

Although free antivirus can be a reasonable choice but if you are a systems administrator and want to manage security centrally, the free security solutions do not give any option. You will need to install antivirus on each system of your organization separately. And if some users of the organization are power users, they may disable or uninstall the security system without your knowledge.

A corporate antivirus will usually have a centralized management system plus an administrator may be able to install the security software remotely and automatically without having to involve each user.

Cost per installation

Additionally, if you want to have a paid antivirus on each of your organization system, it’s cost per installation may be higher than the corporate solution.

Server security

Another advantage of corporate security solutions that they offer server antivirus and security in addition to the client security.

Therefore, to help you avoid these risks we have ready a list of the best corporate level antivirus software .

Kaspersky Small Office Security

Kaspersky is one of the oldest antivirus software available to us. It was initially developed for corporates who wanted to protect their data especially those computers that were connected to the internet from unmonitored file penetration.

Recently, it revamped itself, catering to corporates, professionals and home PCs. The new small office security by Kaspersky is a complete package of internet security and antivirus protection for small intranets. It allows its users to completely secure a single PC or a whole bunch by setting a few rules.

The package is comes with multiple features to protect the network from cyberattacks, unauthorized penetration, SQL injection, DDoS attacks and more. Kaspersky rates highly on virus detection rate because of it uses the latest library of virus detection features and big data analytics.

Benefits

  • High malware protection score
  • Encryption tool and patch management
  • Email, Server, and mobile connectivity protection

Limitations

  • The Kaspersky Small Office Security isn’t available in all regions. You will need to contact specific vendors in your area to get it.

Pricing

You can buy a minimum of 3 users of Kaspersky Small Office Security. A 3 user price would be around $151.20 and the license includes the following:

  • 3 Desktops
  • 3 Mobiles
  • 1 Fileserver

Get Kaspersky Small Office Security

McAfee Complete Endpoint Protection Business

McAfee is another old brand. It has gone through many changes after getting purchased by Intel in 2010. It is now a part of the Intel security and is controlled by TPG capital. Due to its widened security network, incredible trust, and rapid fast detection and blocking of viruses, McAfee is used by 2000+ corporate clients. In End-Point protection for businesses, you will get antivirus security for the complete organization [intranet] – through this you can setup security rules – advanced security for PC, Mac, and Linux.

Apart from the office security, McAfee security suite can be used on Windows tablet computers, and cloud server storage. It comes with a hosted management console to control all these.
Further, it provides end to end protection for disk encryption and cloud storage.

McAfee’s live chat is pretty active and the sales representatives are always available to solve your issues.

Benefits

  • Complete protection for virtual environments
  • Robust management console that can be hosted on cloud
  • Comes with disk encryption facility, cloud storage and other relevant free utilities
  • Ideal for small businesses with regular privacy protection need against latest threats

Limitations

  • McAfee Business Protection suite pricing details are not available online. Therefore you will have to contact the customer representatives to know more

Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business

Symantec Endpoint protection is suitable for small businesses and startups where irregularity in protection planning is assumed. It is not a one-size-fit-all software and will cater to computers, tablets and mobile devices of all types. A system administrator controls the endpoint protection suite using a web based management system. He is responsible for setting the rules, upgrading of the software and providing relevant privileges to devices.

Symantec has worked for corporate clients for a while now and its users don’t need to be expert in system administration. Users with almost no experience in the field can easily manage and deploy Symantec in their organizations.

Symantec security suite also provides Office 365 email protection, SSL certificates for web security, e-commerce checkout protection security, cloud storage encryption and Norton Shopping Guarantee.

It provides five layers of protection for network, storage, behavior, reputation, and identity protection. All these can be controlled through  rule-based firewall and browser protection.

The good thing with Symantec is that it comes with 24/7 support so if of a problem you can easily connect the support team.

Symantec business protection suite users can also update the protection suite without connecting with the network due to it’s on premise distribution of updates.

Benefits

  • Completely customized to serve each user
  • Enforces policy even in virtual environments
  • Compatible with Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3, and Veritas(formally Symantec’s backup)

Limitations

  • It provides protection for office 365 cloud but not for Exchange Server

Pricing

Symantec Endpoint Protection starts at $28/device.

Get Symantec Endpoint Security

Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security

Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security is a one-stop security solution for small and mid-sized businesses. It can be deployed for protection of up to 250 PCs in a network. The security system comes with a complete policy system that can be setup either by the system administrator or the management. You can deploy the suite on the cloud and then remotely manage it from multiple places either through a desktop or the mobile app. The whole suite requires no expensive hardware or patches. Just upgrade it once in a while and it will take care of the update process by itself and the end users won’t have to worry about a thing.

BitDefender team has made the security suite easily understandable for regular business managers. So they can deploy it without needing any technical expertise or the help of IT administrators. The security system gets installed in minutes on all the systems available on the network. More or less, it works similar to the router proxy wall disabling internet access for a few PCs, as per the requirements.

Bitdefender claims that it has outperformed the competition beating Kaspersky, Symantec and other antivirus software. It also comes with an anti-phishing system that reduces email spam and scrutinizes all end points as soon as they are connected to the network.

Benefits

  • A holistic software that protects the network from external threats including viruses, root-kits, malware, phishing attacks and web threats.
  • Uses heuristic processes for web filtering and blockage of all malware entry points

Limitations

  • You can’t have more than 250 users on the network

Pricing

A minimum license of Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security costs around $184.99. It includes a 5 user license. You can use the license on 5 client machines or 3 clients and 2 server machines.

Get Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security

Conclusion

All the antivirus software mentioned above are great for businesses . Like every software, they will have their limitations but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them. These are some of the best ones in the market therefore use the ones that best fit your needs.

Which other antivirus software is great for small business owners? Let us know through the comments below.

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Itechtics Staff
Itechtics staff is a team of technology experts led by Usman Khurshid. We verify everything we write so that our users can be sure to trust us in everything we write. You can reach out to us for further help and support.

1 comment

  • John Gilmour
    John Gilmour

    The AV software I am familiar with recently, all consume too many system resources and way too much advertising. It looks like Windows Defender wins the show at least for now.

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