SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » Trend Micro Adds More for SMBs...But No Vista

February 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Trend Micro Adds More for SMBs...But No Vista

TAGS: SMB Applications

So Trend Micro's been sending out press releases announcing its big jump from Trend Micro Client Server Security for SMB 3.0 to Trend Micro Client Server Security for SMB 3.5. There's also a Trend Micro Client Server Messaging Security for SMB 3.0 to 3.5 jump (I'm not typing that again, dammit).

More of everything security oriented: more support for malware protection, more support for rootkit protection, more support for desktop coverage, more support for server-side protection, especially email servers if you're opting for the more expensive Messaging version of the product. (Client Server is $25/seat for 101 seats while the Messaging product is $46/seat for 101 servers.)

The sweet stuff next to the added security muscle is a networked administration interface that lets you install everything in one step (including the clients on the desktops and servers) and then monitor everything from a central management screen. Pretty cool for an SMB product.

Then I hit 'system requirements'. Desktops top out at Windows XP Pro and the server side is the same, Windows Server 2003 or Exchange 2003 or earlier. Only. Period.

Now I'm wrestling with how I feel about that. Part of me wants to say 'bite me'. But the rational part agrees with Trend Micro that most SMBs won't be on Vista or Exchange 2003 this early anyway--hell Longhorn and it Small Business Server version won't be out till the end of the year at the earliest.

So my official word is that non-Vista support really isn't that big a deal--as long as you don't have any Vista clients. But if you do, then you're stuck with non-centrally managed, individual desktop security clients. Trend's got one of those. Me? I wish they'd buckled down and just delivered support for the darn OS now. And the sure better make it a freebie upgrade at the end of this year when more folks will be deploying Vista. If they try and make us pay for it again, there's going to be some unhappy words here.

Posted by Oliver Rist on February 9, 2007 02:36 PM

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