Desktop Security at the Crossroads

Desktop security products such as anti-virus software and firewalls are a security staple: Enterprise organizations continually implement these tools on close to 100% of their PC assets. The market is dominated by three vendors today: McAfee, Symantec (Norton) and Trend Micro.

In spite of this constant demand, the desktop security software market is going through a number of major changes due to: new types of threats that demand appropriate safeguards; new security requirements that are expanding desktop security products to areas such as network access control, PC backup, and hard drive encryption; and increasing competition by new market entrants such as Microsoft.

The combination of new threats, additional desktop security requirements, and Microsoft's market entrance prompted ESG to initiate a quantitative research study to assess enterprise organizations' desktop security requirements, plans, and opinions. This report answers such questions as:

• Do users believe that desktop security software tools are differentiated or commodity products?
• What are the most important attributes of desktop security products? Does the value of individual product attributes vary by market segment or is it consistent across all users?
• What additional features do users need? Do these vary by market segment?
• How committed are users to their desktop security vendors? Are they willing to switch products and vendors?
• If they were to switch products, what product features would be most attractive?
• Will Microsoft Forefront be welcomed or shunned by users?

To help answer these questions, ESG conducted quantitative primary research with security professionals at 206 North American public & private sector organizations.

For more information on the contents and findings of this report, please download the executive summary below.

Executive Summary