Product
Background
Trend
Virus Control System (TVCS) utilizes a web based management console, which allows
for administration, configuration and policy enforcement from a central location.
TVCS is an HTML based management platform that allows management of Unix, Novell
Netware and Microsoft Windows NT servers, and if coupled with Trend's desktop
products will allow for desktop virus management as well. The product must be
coupled with one or more of the following components, such as Interscan, ScanMail,
eDoctor and desktop clients such as Trend OfficeScan.
Trend's
first virus products were released in 1990, two years after a former Hewlett-Packard
engineer, Steve Chang, formed the company. The initial anti-virus products were
focused specifically on the desktop. Trend has evolved its product line since
then, and its present approach to virus protection is server-centric, using
a top-down methodology. (See Diagram)
Trend
manufactures a product for each component on a LAN/WAN that could be affected
by a virus attack, including laptop computers, desktops and servers. The Trend
Virus Control system allows for administration of these discrete components
from a central point.
The
anti virus market, which we size at approximately $425 million (USD) in 1999,
is continuing to grow, especially as of late with fears of a Y2K eve "Hack-Fest".
Trend competes with such products as Symantec, Norton, and MIMEsweeper, who
all offer server based anti-virus protection, in addition to desktop anti-virus
protection. Trend however, is the first anti-virus software firm to produce
a cross-platform LDAP enabled, HTML management utility. However, Symantec is
making a big push into the Enterprise virus protection market with the Norton
AntiVirus Enterprise solution.
Product
Strategy and Trajectory
Currently,
Trend is a step ahead of its competitors through its offering of an LDAP enabled
system coupled with HTML based administration utilities. Trend's concept of
centralized anti-virus protection is sure to catch on with its competitors,
however, being the first through the gates provides Trend a short-term sales
advantage. Trend believes that without centralized virus protection management,
your network is almost as insecure as having no protection at all. Expect Trend
to stay on the leading edge of technology by improving its Graphical User Interface
to further ease administration by the 4th Quarter of 2000 (Probability 90%).
Expect to see Trend expand the scope of TVCS to include Mini and Mainframe systems
by the 4th quarter of 2000 (Probability 85%). We also expect that Trend will
move away from a proprietary Database, to a SQL Database coupled with redundancy
and load balancing by the 4th Quarter of 2000 (Probability 90%). The product
is priced at $3000 (USD) per 1000 users.
Product
Strengths
The
most appealing parts of the product are its cross-platform HTML based administration
capabilities and its backward compatibility with previous revisions of anti-virus
software, which allow for web based administration and control over previous
Trend software releases. In addition, TVCS's built in network virus statistics
allow an administrator to gauge the overall "cleanliness" of his/her LAN. Event
Tracking is also included, which allows an administrator to track viruses over
a period of time. The product is also fully LDAP enabled. If you are not currently
using an LDAP server, but plan to implement one in the future, the product contains
a clean migration path from its proprietary Database to an LDAP Directory. We
found the Microsoft Windows NT based installation to be extremely intuitive,
although the installation will stop and restart your Microsoft IIS during installation,
so be sure to do any production testing in either an isolated environment or
off-hours in production. TVCS allows a single administrator to automatically
update virus pattern files for the majority of Trend's anti-virus products.
The product can even be configured to notify your "on-call" individual in case
of a virus outbreak on the Network.
Dan
Schrader, VP of New Technology with Trend Micro states, " It (TVCS) allows clients
to monitor the effectiveness of their anti-virus efforts by providing one database
with all virus related incidents." Mr. Schrader further states, " It (TVCS)
takes the guess work out of who is running what (anti-virus software) and how
up to date it is." Richard Ku, a Product Manager with Trend Micro further added,
"It (TVCS) is the only product on the market today that supports UNIX." Mr.
Ku further states, "It (TVCS) embraces competitor's products and collects all
information pertaining to these products, so that the network administrator
can have a good overview of their anti-virus policy in the enterprise." TVCS
does provide a good overview of existing anti-virus products residing on the
network, although it does a better job collecting the statistics of its own
products.
Product
Challenges
The
system requirements for the product may ward off some of the non Windows NT
shops. Trend VCS must be installed on a Windows NT 4.0 Server or Workstation
utilizing Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS). Either Netscape or
Internet Explorer can be used with the browser based Administration application.
Mr. Schrader states that one of the primary challenges is that " (The TVCS)
Interface leaves a lot to be desired and that Trend's non-anti-virus products
should also be managed from the same centralized control system."
Vendor
Recommendations
The
vendor should enable alternate Operating Systems such as various flavors of
Unix, AS/400, Linux and Netware for the primary installation base. The web server
support should be expanded to include products such as Lotus Domino, and the
Apache Web Server, therefore moving away from a single-vendor, or Microsoft-only
configuration. There are currently no plans to provide support for alternate
web servers.
User
Recommendations
If you currently
have Trend Components, TVCS is a positive application from which to control
your environment. However, if you have Norton, MIMEsweeper, McAffee or another
3rd party anti-virus infrastructure in place, this will not be of much use,
and a great expense to replace. If you have no virus protection, or limited
protection and are considering a new anti-virus software suite, make certain
to include Trend in your evaluation process, especially if you need broad anti
virus protection.