Based on a hybrid approach that Trend calls "Cloud-Client Architecture," it integrates hosted security (or cloud-based) services, gateways, and software. Trend's Smart Protection Network promises to reduce endpoint resource consumption, network bandwidth consumption, malware, and overall risk.
Trend Micro Gets Smart with a Hybrid ApproachJune 26, 2008 - IDC LinkComment by Chris Christiansen
Last week, Trend Micro held its first analysts conference in New York City and celebrated its 20thanniversary. Overall, it highlighted its new Smart Protection Network.
Based on a hybrid approach that Trend calls "Cloud-Client Architecture," it integrates hosted security (orcloud-based) services, gateways, and software. Trend's Smart Protection Network promises to reduceendpoint resource consumption, network bandwidth consumption, malware, and overall risk.
IDC agrees that an effective hybrid approach includes:
. Coarse filtering of malware and web sites in the cloud,. Finer-grained filtering at the gateway (for data leakage, message security, encryption, andarchiving),. Very fine grained policies at the endpoint for controlling individual access (inside and outsideof the office).
By offloading malware protection to the "cloud" or hosted security services, unwanted content (malware,spam, bad web sites, unproductive information, etc.) never hits the customer's gateway. Therefore, thecustomer is not responsible for content it never received. This reduces risk, cuts bandwidth requirements,lowers archiving requirement, and limits eDiscovery activities.
Because customers' gateways may see 50% to 70% less traffic (IDC estimate), customers can extend thelifecycle and usefulness of their gateways. They may also avoid upgrading bandwidth (internally orexternally). Lower traffic volumes can also reduce archiving, storage resources, and storage managementtasks. Making these processes more efficient can improve auditing as well.
On the endpoint side, problems are growing worse, but Trend's approach offers potential solutions.Recession-driven budget cuts force corporations and consumers to extend the useful life and delayreplacement of old PCs. IDC hears complaints from corporate users and consumers that, "Security iseating my machine. It takes forever to boot. AV scans make work impossible. Background security tasksalways slow down application and web access."
As for the good news, the hybrid approach can reduce endpoint resource consumption because less threatdetection and web filtering occurs on the endpoint. With this approach, endpoint security consumes lessCPU time, memory, disk, and network bandwidth. As a result, help desk complaints go down. Moreover,cloud-based threat management can do a more effective job at malware prevention, web filtering,encryption, and leakage protection than endpoint-only solutions.
While other vendors are building hybrid approaches, Trend's level of integration and cooperation betweenthe different levels, products, and services is highly developed. For example, it using its cloud-basedapproach to reduce threat management scanning at the endpoint level. This reduces the footprint of theendpoint security client. This can extend the useful life of older PCs that are bedeviled by the resourcerequirements of new security suits. It also has the potential to reduce user complaints to the help deskabout new security software slowing down their old hardware.
- 1-Even though this vision seems to require all Trend products and raises the specter of vendor lock-in, Trendhas strong partnerships with Cisco, Linksys (a Cisco subsidiary), Sony, and others. To manage all theselayers and products, Trend offers a centralized console that provides consolidated management, tracking,reporting, policy administration, auditing, and archiving. What seems to be remarkable is that Trend'sstrategy and products are uniformly applicable to all its customer segments, corporations, SMB (small tomedium businesses), and consumers. While it is a grand vision and many vendors fail to execute, IDCbelieves that Trend has done a remarkable job of addressing customer requirements for the nextgeneration of hybrid security solutions.
Subscriptions Covered:Secure Content and Threat Management Products, Security Services and Identity Management
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