Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition

Here is my observation and clarifications of the differences:

1.  Symantec made us purchase Endpoint 11 from Corporate 10.2
2.  Symantec SB 12 is not an upgrade to Endpoint 11
3.  If we want our small business customers (we have 3500 of these) to upgrade to version 12 they have to repurchase and now use .slf files (hassle)
4.  Small business should use this, but they can't upgrade to it even if you do buy it
4.  If we upgrade we lose features (device control, HA like it worked anyway)
5.  Still no mention of the upgrade point to the broken version 11 since it's not being upgraded to 12, or maybe it is, but they won't tell us

So let me sumarize, if we have endpoint 11 on small businesss customers, they can't buy 12, or if they do they can't upgrade it, unless we manually uninstall it from everything everywhere, and then completely redo all the work, to hope that this new version isn't as confickered as version 11 of the obviously different product.  Then after the upgrade we have obstensibly lost features, and gained hassle by adding in licensing headaches.

Good idea

Would like clarification from Symantec on the observations made above.

This shall help many.

Hello, Some clarifications on the obsevations:
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SEP SBE 12. 0 is a NEW product catered towards Small Businesses (<=100 nodes).  <o p=""></o>

You are right it is not an upgrade to SEP 11.0.  (We will have a separate version of SEP 12.x coming out in the future)<o p=""></o>

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For existing customers using SAV or SEP that want to move to SEP SBE 12.0, there are no extra costs. Customers can simply cross grade to SEP SBE 12.0 than continuing to renew on current AV products. In fact cross-grade price to SEP SBE 12.0 is  a little lower than renewing on current products so there is some cost savings. (Also note although cross-grade path is recommended approach, you can request a no cost license transfer) <o p=""></o>

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Small Business Customers that are using SEP can continue using it (customers are NOT required to upgrade). <o p=""></o>

 Other Small Business customers that have SAV 9, 10 are encouraged to cross-grade to SEP SBE 12.0  <o p=""></o>

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Note on Migration:<o p=""></o>

There is Full migration support for SAV customers (Policy and Endpoints). You don’t need to uninstall anything<o p=""></o>

For existing SEP customers who want to move to SEP SBE, you can easily migrate your endpoints from SEP 11 to SEP SBE12.0 (no uninstall required). One caveat is that server/policy migration is not supported (primarily because SEP SEB has fewer features so there is no direct mapping)<o p=""></o>

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We have run several public programs where customers & partners have deployed SEP SBE 12.0 in their environments and are getting very positive reviews.  But only way for you to be sure is If you try it :). I would be very keen on you to participate in our Early Adopter Program where you will have direct access to Product Management and Engineering to provide candid feedback. You can tell me exactly as you see it and I am confident that you will like what we have done with the product.

If interested, please send an email to symbeta@symantec.com. In addition there are cash incentives for reseller and the end customers to participate in the program. If you would like to participate we need to hear from you in next day or so.


best regards,

Nimesh.<o p=""></o>

There is a Pre-Release Program Now Available For You!

So I am downloading the pre-release.  May even stay up tonight to deploy it internally.

I have a couple customers who are just out of their SAVCE agreements.  Less than a month.

A couple who are coming up.  And a few that are to far gone to renew.

Now that we may be ready to jump back on the Symantec train.  How do I license these new purchases?
 
One or two are ready to go today.

Will Ingram even know what I'm talking about?  Do I wait for release obviously?  When will that be do you think?

Nimeshji:

Please elobrate more on

"In addition there are cash incentives for reseller and the end customers to participate in the program. If you would like to participate we need to hear from you in next day or so."

Tejas

Here is the response I got it outside the Symantec Connect. Copying the same for the benefit of many...

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thank you for the feedback. I will try to explain what we want to achieve with this product and explain the version numbers - Hope this will clarify what Small Business Edition is.

We hope that with this product will make it easier for small businesses to implement endpoint security ( according to a survey by SC magazin over 30% of small business don’t have any endpoint security product at all! http://www.scmagazineus.com/Survey-finds-that-SMBs-often-lack-basic-security/article/130485/ )

We also hope to provide small business customers currently using SAV 9 or SAV 10 an easier alternative. Some are reluctant to upgrade to Symantec Endpoint 11.0 because they think it is too complicated and too ’big’ for them.

We can’t and don’t want to force customers to upgrade. We continue to support the old versions for years. If a company has an Endpoint Protection 11.0 license it can deploy SAV 10 if it wants to (I think even SAV 9) but the ’Endpoint Protection’ product line provides a lot better protection than the SAV products.

So we also hope this product will help to persuade small business customers to move from a SAV to a SEP product. If they don’t want Device Control and HA then Small Business Edition is the better choice. If they want all the features, whistles and bells they can upgrade to Endpoint Protection.

A customer running Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 already has the best protection we offer - so there is no real reason to switch to Small Business Edition 12.0.

As you mentioned the customer would loose features like Device Control and the advantage of having an easier user interface is probably not worth learning a new one.

The version numbers are a bit misleading. But these are different products and we can’t compare version numbers of different products. The fact that the Small Business Edition has the verision number 12.0 does not indicate that it is ’more advanced’, ’has more features’ or ’provides better protection’ than Symantec Endpoint Protection with the version number 11.0 (or Norton 360 with the version number 2.0 :) )

BTW We tried to simplify the licensing process considerably compared to SAV and of course are we continuing to develop Endpoint Protection and the version numbers are continously changing. We are currently at 11.0.4 which has seen some big improvements over 11.0.0 I don’t know when the version number will jump to a 11.5 or 12.0 ...

Hope this helped

Carsten
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Hope this would help connect.

Tejas

For the net product I am seeitn two different forums running sepratley.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/symantec-endpoint-protection-small-business-edition-pre-release-testing-program

and this one

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/clarification-symantec-sb-12-vs-symantec-endpoint-11

Why can's you merge them, so that we do not have to wander here and there.

Tejas

Hi Mark,

SEP SBE 12.0 is expected to launch early next month. Thats when you can start purchasing new licenses. Expect to see a lot more announcements and details about the product in the coming weeks. You will also start seeing a lot more activity on the forums.

best regards,

Nimesh.

We will merge them next week - right now they are the same topic, but discussing different "issue"

Best,

Eric

 Waiting to test on ver 12. Also hope 11.0 MR4 MP2 comes out soon

Please suggest me which one would be better, SEP 11 or SEP 12 for 300 user network.

 12 is not even released. 11 MP4 MR1 is the most recent production release out there.

Vikram,

In the morning you'll see quite a bit of content on the SBE (Small Business Edition).  Send me a PM if you don't get your question answered after reviewing the videos, forums and blogs regarding SBE.  "Stay tuned for news..."  (in the morning)...

Best,

Eric

 Thanks :)

Check out the videos for the Admin Tool Tour, Client Install Tour, David Strom Screencast, and General product tour!  A blog posting about SBE will be available in a few...
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/security/video


Best,

Eric

I am missing a sales seminar in Minneapolis as we speak.  Almost go there.  Customers come first...

Is this new information in correlation?  Where can we find the new info?

When can we purchase:)

Thanks!

Bret

Folks,

There is also a new blog that was posted today about Intelligent Live Update within SEP SBE 12.0 found here:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/intelligent-live-update-capability-sep-sbe-120

You may want to subscribe to the various SBE blogs and threads that are started.  You'll notice too, as of this morning, an SBE product forum page where you can post information, etc.,  found here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/security/forums/endpoint-protection-small-business

I'm closing this thread, as there is another "identical" thread here:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/sep-small-business-edition-12-vs-sep-11

Best,

Eric