SOPHOS Licensing?

[Jason Meyer]

OK, everybody's favorite topic, licensing!!!

Our Desktop/Server Team just moved to SOPHOS for their anti-virus solution. We (Messaging Team) have been using SOPHOS on our IronPort appliances for years.

Does the agreement that our Desktop/Server team just purchased from SOPHOS have any bearing on our SOPHOS licensing costs from IronPort?

I am coming up on the time to renew my hardware/software agreement with IronPort and am wondering if there would be any connection between IronPort SOPHOS license cost and SOPHOS license agreement our Desktop/Server team just entered.

Can I tie the two together in anyway to save on cost?

[steven_geerts]

GOOD LUCK! :wink:

My experience is that nowadays, especially on the integrated AV scanners as we have on Ironport (or other appliances), not much can be done. In the past we combined the McAfee licenses for WIntell servers/desktops with the McAfee mail scanner on our Sun based mail relays but we could not get this done on our new products (Ironport and Sendmail Sentrion Appliances).

Since you are forced to double license your AV scanners it might be a good idea to switch to McAfee on your Ironport. Having multiple AV vendors has saved us several times from disaster. Even with VOF and Sophos on Ironport we notice a few “catches” from the internet per year on our internal McAfee scanners.

Steven


ps: Maybe nice to know: we use Sophos and VOF on Ironport, McAfee on Sendmail, Trend on Exchange and McAfee on the workstations. Which diversity in products are you guys using?

[Jason Meyer]

Hey, thanks for the input Steven. I definately applaud what you are saying with the "protection by diversity" strategy. However, against that logic we have moved towards being a Sophos shop.

We have Sophos on IronPort (no VOF).

We have ForeFront (CA Vet, Microsoft Antimalware Engine, Norman Virus Control, Sophos, VirusBuster)

We have Sophos on our servers/workstations.

We just recently moved from McAfee on our servers/workstations as it wasn't as well liked as Sophos.

We have not had a virus event on a 'protected' machine for years so there is little interest in changing. When something big happens that could change I suppose.

Thanks again for your input.

Anyone else have any thoughts on price discounts for multiple platforms using Sophos licenses?