Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Antivirus
From: Charlie Prothero <Charlie.Prothero () KEYSTONE EDU>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 21:56:51 -0500
Yandro, I was in the same boat over the summer; with a 2-year deal we had done 2 years ago up for renewal. The reseller that we used previously sent me a quote, and it was high. A sales rep from another company had been after me for some time to look at their product, which seemed comparable to what we had. Naturally, there are switching costs on AV software (staff time, risk of failure, etc), so I told him that the only way we would consider going with him was if he could produce evidence of substantial savings vs. renewing our current product. In order to keep things fair, I did not share any pricing information. Pretty soon, I had a quote in front of me with VERY attractive pricing. I started our PO paperwork process to do the deal, and then sent a courtesy note to tell the other vendor that we would not be renewing. Within minutes, I received a phone call from the reseller, requesting that I not do anything until their customer retention group had a chance to "verify" the part numbers, pricing, and the level of discount that they could offer. As you might have guessed, they came back with a much better proposal, and we stayed with them. I don't like to go back and forth with vendors, preferring instead to give everyone one chance to put their best offer on the table. But, in this case, our incumbent vendor did not know when they prepared their first quote that there were competing proposals up for consideration. Bottom line/lessons learned: * The AV market is competitive; with little differentiation between the top vendors (i.e. they all provide good protection without much variation in price). * Your vendor does not want to lose your business, and will likely offer very aggressive pricing if they know you're looking at alternatives (Conversely, if they think you're in the bag, they won't shrink their markup just to be nice). * All other things equal, the product you have installed today and that your techs are familiar with is probably the best one for you. Switching products is a lot of work, and will require significant staff time. Calculate this into any savings model you may be developing. * This is something that you should revisit periodically, but not every year. If you are satisfied with your current product and decide to renew, take advantage of multi-year pricing deals (we did 3 years). Multi-year deals with a new vendor may be harder to get comfortable with. * If you change your AV provider, and then have an outbreak, everyone will question whether it would have happened if you had kept your existing solution. So, make sure you have very compelling reasons to make such a change! That's all I can think of, for now. Good luck! - Charlie. Charlie Prothero IT Director Keystone College La Plume, PA ________________________________ From: The EDUCAUSE Security Discussion Group Listserv on behalf of Yandro Sent: Wed 3/9/2005 12:40 PM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: [SECURITY] Antivirus We have a corporate license of Norton Antivirus and is due in a few months. At these moments we are evaluating some options like TrendMicro and others, but some one came up with Hauri Inc. Does any of you is currently working with this one? Any concern about it? Thanks in advance. Yandro --- Yandro Chavez Rubio Information Security Services Information Technology Tecnologico de Monterrey Tel: +52 (442) 217-3892. Fax: (442) 217-3778 Mobile: +52 (442) 281-0531 Intercampus: 80 VIT 4103, 80 QRO 3391 http://www.itesm.mx -------------------------- The content of this data transmission must not be considered an offer, proposal, understanding or agreement unless it is confirmed in a document signed by a legal representative of ITESM. The content of this data transmission is confidential and is intended to be delivered only to the addressees. Therefore, it shall not be distributed and/or disclosed through any means without the authorization of the original sender. If you are not the addressee, you are forbidden from using it, either totally or partially, for any purpose. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Discussion Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Discussion Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Discussion Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Current thread:
- Antivirus Yandro (Mar 09)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Antivirus Michael G Carr (Mar 09)
- Re: Antivirus Flagg, Martin D. (Mar 09)
- Re: Antivirus Flagg, Martin D. (Mar 09)
- Re: Antivirus Charlie Prothero (Mar 09)
- Re: Antivirus Ronnie Jefferson (Mar 12)