McAfee, Inc. today outlined details of its Security-as-a-Service strategy, designed to provide consumers, small to mid-sized businesses and large enterprises with a comprehensive set of security products delivered as a service in the cloud. This strategy builds on McAfee’s core strengths in threat prevention, its diverse software-as-a -service portfolio and industry-leading global threat intelligence, powered by McAfee Avert Labs.
McAfee’s approach to harnessing the cloud is based on completeness of vision and breadth of functionality within the current SaaS portfolio. With nine years of experience and maturity in providing SaaS solutions, the McAfee portfolio offers comprehensive protection and reliability. McAfee provides customers with a single vendor solution and more cost efficient deployment options in difficult economic times. With SaaS delivery options, McAfee customers recognize cost savings of 50 percent on average.
“Our customers have told us they want flexibility in their delivery options,” said Marc Olesen, SVP and General Manager, McAfee Software-as-a-Service. “It is clear that IT resources need to focus on initiatives that are business critical, while consolidating vendors. Bottom line, McAfee is committed to making it easy for customers to maximize the value of our solutions and help them save money through Security-as-a-service.”
By integrating with McAfee’s real-time, cloud-based global threat intelligence, McAfee® Security SaaS products provide increased visibility into both external and internal threats and vulnerabilities, protecting customers more efficiently and reducing both acquisition and operational costs. With 350 threat researchers and tens of millions of data collection sensors, McAfee’s global footprint is substantial. The complete McAfee Security SaaS portfolio leverages McAfee’s large install base and impressive threat intelligence capabilities, providing customers with the most insightful and comprehensive view of the evolving threat landscape. With McAfee’s Security SaaS offerings, the company delivers confidence in protection through a market leading and diverse portfolio of solutions.
McAfee Responds to Changing Customer Needs
“We have been using McAfee's SaaS offering for the last two years and have realized substantial value from our deployment. Additionally, McAfee SaaS has significantly changed the way we do things, allowing us to easily scale to protect our retail locations,” said Greg Ellison, IT Manager for Gilligan Oil. “Perhaps best of all, McAfee's SaaS solutions are extremely easy to use and never interfere with our accounting software and daily operations.”
Organizations of all sizes are facing diminishing budgets at the same time they are seeing increased pressure to drive faster value from IT investments. According to a recent forecast by Gartner, worldwide IT spending is projected to decline for 2009, despite several indications that security threats are on the rise. Organizations need solutions that optimize operational budgets and produce faster return on investments. Additionally, IT departments are stretched thin, as demonstrated by a 2009 survey by CFO Magazine, which found that 34 percent of CIOs have begun to reduce headcount.
McAfee develops solutions according to customer demand and is delivering a comprehensive Security SaaS portfolio. Security SaaS solutions must be:
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- Instantly accessible, allowing customers to begin securing their organization and maximizing the value of their investment within minutes.
- Effectively managed; McAfee is responsible for the management of the application throughout its lifecycle, including patches and upgrades. Customers can focus on securing their business, not managing software.
- Include real-time threat protection and security expertise provided by the McAfee team. Customers can leverage our expertise rather than building up security expertise in-house.
Market Opportunity
“Gartner clients are showing increased inclination towards deploying security SaaS solutions in threat and vulnerability – focused markets, where up–to-date protection and expertise is paramount,” said Arabella Hallawell, research vice president, Gartner, Inc. “Security as a service also offers the potential for lower-cost delivery of security controls and functions with faster implementation cycles.”
Industry analysts estimate the worldwide security-as-a-service market was valued at approximately $643,000 in 2007 and is forecasted to grow to more than $3 million in 2012. This represents a 30 percent compound annual growth rate over the five year forecast period.
McAfee’s Approach to Harnessing the Cloud:
McAfee’s market-leading SaaS portfolio delivers endpoint protection, Web protection, email protection and vulnerability assessments as a service, linked to global threat intelligence from Artemis, TrustedSource™ and SiteAdvisor®. McAfee’s combined intelligence capabilities add an essential layer of protection to guard against today’s most advanced threats, including insidious Web-borne malware, morphing viruses, targeted phishing attacks and more. It is the most precise and comprehensive threat intelligence system in the world. It works by accumulating data from millions of sensors, creating a real-time profile of all suspicious activity and content, and then watching for deviations based upon expected behavior.
McAfee has the most diverse Security SaaS solutions available today and is uniquely positioned to dominate the Security–as-a-Service marketplace. McAfee’s SaaS solutions are all centrally managed via a unique cloud based management console, enabling convenient policy setting and reporting for customers. The McAfee security SaaS portfolio includes:
- McAfee Total Protection Service: Endpoint Protection via SaaS. With over 5 million users, this integrated solution protects desktops, servers, and email; blocks viruses, spyware, spam, phishing, and hacker attacks; and allows customers to surf the Internet safely with SiteAdvisor technology.
- McAfee Total Protection Service Extended: Email Protection via SaaS. Adds the capability to Total Protection Service to automatically protect customers’ email from threats like spam, phishing and viruses.
- McAfee Web Protection Service: Web Protection via SaaS. Based completely in the cloud, this service provides URL filtering to protect customers from malware and other web-borne threats and utilizes McAfee TrustedSource software, a reputation-based security technology, to enforce security policies in real time.
- McAfee Vulnerability Assessment: Web application and network vulnerability assessments via SaaS. Real time validation against industry standards including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Additionally, McAfee SECURE Trustmark appears on more than 80 thousand websites worldwide, with more than 80 billion impressions.
McAfee is harnessing the cloud with plans to build out the SaaS portfolio to meet market and customer demands. The build out will focus on expanded functionality for our cloud-based management console, Email protection and vulnerability management. McAfee's SaaS solutions are, and will continue to be, designed to align with the way corporations secure and transact business while also supporting agile and evolving business requirements.
About McAfee, Inc.
McAfee, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee is committed to relentlessly tackling the world's toughest security challenges. The company delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems and networks around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the web more securely. Backed by an award-winning research team, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. http://www.mcafee.com