I've been thinking about what to do for anti-virus protection when our
Symantec AV license runs out in July. Sophos is an option that I
explored a few years back, but lost interest in after the campus NAV
license was established.
Now it seems that Sophos has more competitive pricing, so I plan on
evaluating that in May. But I wanted to bring this to the group's
attention now, for people that may be farther along in the order
process. www.sophos.com has a free download for evaluation.
-John
The sales rep implied that pricing would get better for larger
quantities. Here is a cut from a price quote:
Sophos Anti-Virus (SAV) for 500 Computers (not to exceed 50 servers)
Product Subscription Term QTY Unit Price Total
Cost per Year
SAV 1 year 500 $7.00 $3,500.00 $3,500.00
SAV 2 year 500 $10.50 $5,250.00 $2,100.00*
SAV 3 year 500 $14.00 $7,000.00 $1,866.65*
*Note: 2- year subscription includes 6 additional months at no charge
for a total term of 30 months
*Note: 3- year subscription includes 9 additional months at no charge
for a total term of 45 months
And a quote from a Sophos sales rep:
>
> Why Sophos is Different
>
> 1. Updating - Sophos considers ALL computer viruses in the wild as a
> threat. We are the only major anti-virus company that updates our virus
> databank daily. Norton/Symantec updates weekly, unless there is a virus
> emergency.
> Sophos customers go to the Sophos Datank 24 times a day to poll for the
> latest virus updates.
>
> 2. Update size - For 23 years Sophos' sole focus was anti-virus for
> institutions (not home users). The software is designed to support large
> networks. One result - our update files are text files and they are 2-4
> kb. Norton/Symantec update files are anywhere from 100K - 5MB. When the
> size of a virus file is smaller than an update file, there is trouble.
>
> 3. Sophos uses checksumming. When you install Sophos, it scans all files
> on a machine for viruses and creates a checksum for each file. When you
> scan the machine again (whether scheduled or on-demand), Sophos only scans
> new files or files that have been modified since the last scan - as these
> are the only files that might contain a virus. The result is low CPU
> utilization and negligible desktop strain.
>
> 4. Sophos cannot be removed from a machine by an end user - and end
> user's don't need to because when Sophos is updating, you can still use
> other applications on your PC. I personally have worked at companies
> running Norton/Symantec and many have removed it because when it was
> updating, their machines were essentially frozen.
>
> 5. Support - A) Sophos has virus labs across the globe that work on virus
> signature files at all hours of the day, B) Sophos has global support
> teams that are available all hours of the day, C) All Sophos licenses come
> with 7 x 24 live body customer support from Sophos Engineers (not
> outsourced). D) Since Sophos sells only to business, in virus emergencies
> we don't have 100's of thousands of small users clogging the support lines
> and web sites.
>
>
> Chris Taylor, Senior Account Executive, Sophos
> Email: [log in to unmask], Tel: 781 973 1193, Web: www.sophos.com
> Add live virus info to your website:http://www.sophos.com/link/vfeed
>
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