Symantec, which provides a range of products aimed at protecting corporate networks and systems, said Thursday that it is ready for any competition from Microsoft.
"With a level playing field, all the vendors in the security space will compete for mind share, based on what enterprise customers believe to be the best product to suit their needs," a representative of the security software maker said. "Symantec has been the leading provider of effective protection against viruses and other malicious threats for more than 15 years."
The main obstacle facing Microsoft is customer distrust. "There are certain customers that don't trust them because of their previous track record," Yankee Group's Jaquith said.
The software maker has invested heavily in security over the past years. Despite this, most malicious software targets Microsoft products, and the company still deals with lots of security holes. Last week, for example, it issued 12 security bulletins with fixes for 21 vulnerabilities--the largest number ever for its monthly "Patch Tuesday" updates.
"You're in one camp or another with them," Jaquith said. Either businesses are very loyal customers and are rooting for Microsoft, or they feel they were burned by the company and simply don't trust it, he said.
And there are those who feel the software giant is trying to turn lemons into lemonade with its move into the security fray.
"The idea of Microsoft coming up with antivirus software is a sham," said Frank Seichal of Old Bridge, N.J., who works in IT at a financial institution. "Why should I purchase software from Microsoft to stop the operating system vulnerabilities created by Microsoft? I can not believe Microsoft is getting away with this."
Another factor to overcome are the high-quality products sold by incumbent security vendors. McAfee, for example, has earned high marks from its customers with the ePolicy Orchestrator, a central security management tool, Jaquith said.
"Microsoft needs to prove reliability, stability and predictability. They need some success stories," Jaquith said. "Just saying that they're better integrated and that they make the operating system is not going to cut it."
In its Forefront documentation, Microsoft promises products that work well together and with existing IT systems. Additionally, the software will be simple to install and can be centrally managed, it says. However, they will protect only Microsoft software and not Linux servers or SAP applications, for example.
"That is perhaps their greatest disadvantage," Blum said. "They tend to have this somewhat myopic strategy centered around their own products and ignoring other products, even those that run on Windows."
Rivals and regulators
Antitrust concerns also lurk. Microsoft may
promote Forefront products as better integrated, but if it has used hooks into
its operating system that are kept secret from rivals, regulators might be all
over the software giant, analysts said.
In fact, some small Microsoft competitors are already complaining about the company's security pricing strategy. In a blog posting this week, Alex Eckelberry, president of Clearwater, Fla.-based anti-spyware toolmaker Sunbelt Software, said Microsoft is engaging in predatory pricing with its OneCare and Antigen products.
By undercutting its rivals on price, Microsoft is pushing the competition out of business, after which it will increase its prices, Eckelberry wrote.
Jaquith dismissed that complaint. "I think they are being creative and aggressive, but I don't think they are being predatory. There is plenty of room for pricing innovation in this space," he said.
It was about time that Microsoft fleshed out its security strategy and shared it with the public, Jaquith said. "Finally we're hearing what they are doing," he said. "It is a 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead' strategy."
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