Review of ResolutionsMSP Antivirus 2010

 
Review of ResolutionsMSP Antivirus 2010:OVERVIEW:

• Installation time under 2 minutes.
• Overall a very good managed antivirus program.
• Top-rated Help & Support system.

• Overall Rating: Very Good!
 

1) Installation:  (4 out of 5 Points)

ResolutionsMSP 2010 has three different methods of installation. The first and most common is called an ActiveX installation where the product is downloaded from the Internet and installed at the same time.  Depending on your Internet speed you can install in under a minute or it could take a couple of minutes to install the application.  The second method is to download what is called a Self-Executable Installer.  Once this program is downloaded you can quickly put it onto any jump drive and the account ID is generated so you can take it with you and install on-demand.  The installation for the SEI is less than a minute.  The third option is a network installation using Active Directory which is a good method when wanting to install to lots of computers all at the same time but this method requires a knowledge of the network configurations. 

2) Features & Ease of Use:  (4.5 out of 5 Points)

ResolutionsMSP has a very good set of antivirus features and options built into their Security Center which is web-based and can be accessed from any internet connection. Since this technology is a little different than the traditional set of un-managed antivirus software it provides the ability to have Groups and Policies…. Don't get scared… it is pretty simple.  Through one central management console you can manage a few or many computers with one user interface.  – Groups and policies can be defined according to your organization.  For example, you can define them by location – all machines in the New York office are in one group while all the Atlanta and London machines are in their own groups as well.  Then within those groups, policies can be enforced as well allowing for differences based on the needs of the Company.  Another example is that in a home you might divide the groups into Parents machines and Children's machines and set the policies according to the needs of the people.

ResolutionsMSP uses the policy features to define the action and reporting structure for malware.  If a Virus is found on your computer the ResolutionsMSP client will be told to fix it, clean it, quarantine it, and after it took the action to resolve the threat it would upload statistical information to the central database which sends a notification to you or your IT Manager with the details.  At any time you can log into the central security center and view your Virus Activity reports or have them sent to you on a schedule. This illuminates the confusion of prompting the customer and requiring an action when a virus is found. The ResolutionsMSP application has intelligence built in to fix the problem automatically and then record and report back what happened. ResolutionsMSP protects against Viruses, Trojans, Worms, Spyware, Adware, Rootkits and more.

3) PERFORMANCE

Virus Scanner:  (4.5 out of 5 Points)

ResolutionsMSP uses a leading Antivirus engine and has been known for being one of the fastest scanning and least obtrusive antivirus programs for years, and this year is no exception. ResolutionsMSP 2010 has the real-time, full on-demand scanner and the email scanner integrated inside their application.  The real-time scanner will catch activity related to FILE/IO (Input/output) activity. Examples of FILE/IO are if you were to Open a file, or Close a file, Download a file from the Internet,  or Upload a file to your network. Any type of FILE/IO activity, it traps the file at the kernel level, checks it before allowing the file to be Opened, Closed, Saved, Downloaded or Uploaded.

The full On-Demand Scanner is impressive as well.  A full scan on a computer with 70GB of used space on its hard-drive took 47 minutes.  This was the 2nd fastest per our scan time which was slightly better than Norton, which took 49 minutes longer.  One of the nicer features within the Policy setting was the ability to schedule a full hard-drive scan.  We had the option to set the day and time to perform the scan.  We were able to scan only the system folders, or email or all local drives.  The ace in the whole was the ability to schedule the resource priority Normal or Low… If you set it to normal let the scan happen in the middle of the night… and if you want to scan during the day set the schedule scan to a low priority so it is very user friendly and it does not interfere with your work.  One additional feature was the fact that the web-based Security Center kept track of your last scans… you or the IT Manager could easily log in and see when the last time a scan took place on one computer or many computers.  – Sweet.

ResolutionsMSP did not implement the "quick on-demand scan" feature as other providers have built into their applications but I am told by their business development that they will make this adjustment and release an updated patch to all of their customers within a short period of time.

Updates: (4.5 out of 5 Points)
The 2010 version of ResolutionsMSP updates (an average of 21 new defintions per day), which is good, but in speaking to their business development manager they are working on an incremental update which will enhance the product within a short period of time… Their technology is built upon a Pulse or a Heartbeat… if there is a new update that needs to be delivered the ResolutionsMSP client communicates within the ResolutionsMSP Server which resides in the cloud to sense the update and it carries down the incremental file. However, the new engine which is integrated into their product is the top-rated company with its response time to new viruses.  ResolutionsMSP takes less than 2 hours on average to respond to new threats, while most other antivirus programs take 4-8 hours.

4) Help & Support:  (4.5 out of 5 Points)

ResolutionsMSP is an industry leader with its support system. We define themselves as a boutique firm which gives personal attention to our customers.  Through the support of their partners they provide a very highly respected level of service. 

CONCLUSION:

ResolutionsMSP is a top-rated managed antivirus program with their 2010 (3.5.0) version performing fabulously.  The installation process is smooth but the speed depends upon your Internet.  If you do not have a fast Internet then we recommend to download their Self-Executable Installer… once it is downloaded then the installation is within a minute. Their performance of system resources seems like they are not even on your machine however it caught every virus we threw at it and all data was shown within the web-based "Security Center".   For any former users of Panda WebAdmin or current Panda Managed Office Protection… this product of ResolutionsMSP 2010 outperforms the competition hands down.

• Overall Rating: Very Good!