I have been working with Symantec for a number of years now and our company has had Symantec products for well over 10 years, dating back to the days when we had Symantec Antivirus.
I've come to learn lots, get frustrated a heck of a lot, bang my fists on my table, and throw small things (like pens or pencils) because something with Symantec isn't working right.
For the last 3 days I've been fighting with our SEPM console because I keep looking at our Endpoint Status on the main page, where it tells me that 523 devices are out of date. 3 days ago this was 822 devices, and I had no clue why. It didn't just happen overnight, it's been an ongoing battle for several years. I got it down to 523 after re-installing from a pre-defined package but this was done by trial and error, and seemed to work.
Over the years I've upgraded version after version and on occasion, the number would fluctuate up and down, and it would never stay constant. This is because I've come to the conclusion that there are way too many factors causing out of date definitions. Machines are sometimes out of drive space, local firewalls are sometimes enabled and SEP can't communicate through the firewall and SEP won't install, or the definitions are corrupt. Who makes a product like this????
I've run the SymDiag tool many times, where it collected information about the SEPM console, and each time I ran it, it would find corrupt definitions, and when clicking "FIX" it would never fix it even after several attempts. Point here is, that no product created professionally would ever self-corrupt files. I know it's not intentional, and depending on network conditions, it should never happen, but it does and it's bloody frustrating when it does happen and sometimes I can't seem to fix it.
When we had a problem installing SEP 14.0 on a Windows 2013 server, we called Symantec who called back, did a remote connection to our computer, installed and uninstalled, rebooted, installed again, and every time we tried installing 14.0 on the server, it simply would not install. In the documentation however, it says that SEM 14 is compatible with 2013 server, but obviously in our case it was not. So that made us scale down to Windows server 2012, where installation occurred flawlessly, but Symantec Support did not help us discover this. I discovered it on my own.
We have over 3500 devices in our network and today I sit here with 2910 that are up to date, 523 that are out of date, 70 that are offline, and 355 that are in a "Disabled" state, whatever that means. To date I have never actually been able to figure out why a device is out of date, if all I did was install SEP normally from the SEPM console. Why would software do this? Why would Symantec make a product so inferior to today's standards and put us through this agony?
The SEPM console is a logistical nightmare. I can never find out where something is, and I always have to resort to looking back on the SEP forums for help. All I See are SEP representatives quoting links to more information without trying to respond to the question someone asked. I hate this kind of support with a passion! This is not good customer service. I think the reps on the forums are getting so frustrated with so many customers having so many problems, they simply do not want to take on another issue to explain in plain English to someone who can't understand their software, and simple responses have only links to other forum conversations.
When I have an emergency sitation on my hands, a colleague will say, "Call Symantec Support" and I just CRINGE when I hear this suggestion. I absolutely without a doubt, despise the Symantec telephone support. I know that all the phone support reps mean well, but I can't understand half of them because of their heavy Indian accents, and some don't really know the product well enough to troubleshoot our issues. This comes from outsourcing to call centres in India to save a few bucks. Nobody wants to say it, but I am simply stating a fact.
Lately we've been looking at cloud-based alternatives to SEP, and something that doesn't have so many configuration options. I think shortly we'll be switching products if Symantec can't get their act in gear and make this easier for us, and make a product that simply WORKS. As a matter of fact, I believe we will be using another product by the time our next renewal is due.
I hope some day soon I will never have to look at the SEPM console again. My anxiety level goes sky-high every time I have to look at it. I can't wait for the day I never have to look at it again.
Respond if you feel this way too and want to add your two cents. Maybe Symantec will look at this and say, "Hey guys, we really need to change our product". Given enough people who complain, something must be done, and soon!
Is everyone readng this 100% completely satisfied with Symantec Endpoint Protection?