IT Pro Verdict
G Data delivers highly cost effective endpoint protection with a class act on its guest list. Anti-spam, web filtering and anti-virus measures perform very well and the product is easy to deploy and manage but the minimal reporting is a big weakness.
Despite the large number of established names already in the UK data security market, German company G Data Software thinks there's room for one more. For the past 25 years it has focused primarily on personal and business anti-virus solutions but it now makes the move into endpoint security.
On review we have its new EndpointProtection Business (EPB) software which, naturally, offers G Data's anti-virus measures but partners this with removable device and application controls. There's much more as you also get a client firewall, web content filtering, internet access management and even anti-spam.
G Data hasn't developed its own anti-virus solution but partners with a range of well known names in this field. EPB offers dual scanning engines which come courtesy of Bitdefender and Avast! so viruses will have a tough time.
Web filtering is handled by RuleSpace whilst spam gets put through the grinder by Commtouch. The latter is a very good choice as we've found it delivers excellent scores when testing other products that use this service.
The EPB environment consists of a central server, a management console and client agents for Windows 2000 and upwards. The server component can also run on systems running Windows XP and onwards and you also get a useful web browser console.
Installation and deployment on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system proved to be simple and the routine offers to load the server and the console. If you're using EPB in response to a virus outbreak you can create a bootable disk which provides local scanning tools to check and clean systems prior to loading EPB on them.
For client testing we used a selection of PCs and VMware VMs to present Windows XP, Vista and 7 to EPB. On first contact with the console it runs a network discovery, places all systems in its left pane ready to receive the client and assigns icons to identify workstation and server OSes.
