Software patch company Shavlik Technologies is to embed anti-virus and anti-spyware programmes produced by Windows security software house Sunbelt Software into an upgraded version of its flagship patch management system.
Included with NetChk Protect 7, the anti-malware software has been integrated in a way that makes it particularly light on system resources.
Nancee Melby of Shavlik told us, “The security system folds right into the Shavlik agent. It is designed to be lightening fast and robust, and sits in the background on a very small footprint so as not to consume systems resources.”
Sunbelt Software does not have a great level of penetration in the enterprise market, and Melby said the Sunbelt system had been chosen over other options because it ranks very highly in independent tests.
The core anti-virus detection engine that drives its Vipre enterprise system was reworked earlier this year. That new engine has some important enhancements for the detection of both existing malware and new, unknown threat/variants, using pattern analysis on files as well as classic signature detection and heuristics.
Melby said that no charge would be made to existing users for the additional security software integrated into Version 7, and that it could conceivably lead to cost-savings among the Shavlik customer base of the $10 to $12 per node that is normally charged for a combined anti-virus and anti-spyware licence.
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Mark Shavlik, CEO of Shavlik said, “Laptops, remote and often disconnected, remain unprotected due to the bandwidth requirements of their current anti-virus”. The view is that businesses do not want to sacrifice business productivity in order to update those systems as often as they should.
Shavlik operates in the PC lifecycle and endpoint security market segments where it competes largely against Microsoft, but also runs into rivals such as PatchLink, BigFix, LANdesk and Symantec’s Altiris line of products.
It sells a blend of agent-based and agentless technologies to distribute software and protect servers and endpoints.
