Total Protection for Endpoint from McAfee offers just what the name says: a full-scale suite of tools to protect and secure endpoints throughout the enterprise and ensure that policy compliance is met across the board. Some features include full disk encryption, device management to control use of removable media, intrusion prevention, local firewall, email virus and spam protection, web content filtering and security, network access control, and virus and malware protection. All of this functionality can be controlled and monitored by administrators from one central console.
With all of the features and functions that are packed in this product one would think it would be difficult to deploy and configure. We found that this was not the case at all. The initial implementation consisted of installing the server software on a machine in the enterprise. The installation itself was launched from an executable and, after a short setup wizard, the installation took just a few minutes to complete. The installer initiated all necessary components along with any prerequisites that were needed. So, installation was seamless without the need to start and stop to install missing prerequisites. After the server was installed, deploying agents across the network was easy and done from right within the web-based management console.
We found the management console to be easy to navigate with intuitive controls. The layout was very comfortable to browse around in and we had almost no trouble at all becoming acquainted with how to use and configure the product. This tool featured a robust policy engine that had many granular controls and options. We also found that this solution had a lot of auditing and reporting ability, making it simple to find and remediate non-compliant machines right from the comforts of the console.
Documentation provided with this product was comprised of a quick-start guide and several other product manuals for each of the various components of the suite. The quick-start guide featured a well detailed overview of both installation and post-installation tasks to get the product up and running with an initial configuration. From there the individual manuals took over for information and detailed instructions on how to configure the individual components that make up the suite. While we found all documentation to be satisfactory - with many screen shots, diagrams and step-by-step instructions - we would like to see it consolidated into one solid document for the suite.
McAfee offers full 24/7 phone and email technical support as part of a subscription. Customers also get access to a vast online portal with resources, such as a knowledge base, product documentation, online chat aid and a user forum, among many other helpful components.
At a price starting at around $231 per node for up to 25 nodes, this product can become quite expensive for larger environments. However, we find it to be a very good value for the money as it features a lot of functionality bundled up into one easy-to-use and manage package. If purchased ala carte, adding many of the components would become quite pricey. However, this product gives all the functionality under one management umbrella. Overall, McAfee Total Protection for Endpoint is a solid product and a good value.
