The renewal of the AV software is coming up and we have changed supplier this year.

We currently have Symantec's corporate shield stuff, but our new supplier is pushing us towards GData. I've used Sophos (many moons ago) and Trend Micro in the past, but GData isn't one I am familiar with. Tracking down reviews of corporate AV software is a pain with Google - plenty of people offering services, but little in the way of comparisons or reviews...

So, anybody any opinions on the corporate AV suites? Anything I should look for.

The GData website is very simple and clearly laid out, as is their packaging, which appeals to me... But I know Trend (although it is the priciest) and staying with Symantec would involve the least work...

Never heard of GData.
It's probably a rebranded version of something (like PC world's AV package)

Symantec is my first choice, the upgrade to endpoint isn't too difficult if you follow the correct steps (you might have already done this)
Sophos would be my 2nd choice.

I don't think I've seen anything other than McAfee in any of the companies I've worked at for the last 8 or 9 years, which must say something about the products they offer.

GData is the AV software which gets bundled with Fujitsu PCs, among others. They are usually under the top 5 for home AV software, but I haven't used their corporate offering before...

If you look at the GData site, it has a range of home/SOHO offerings, plus a corporate package, which integrates into the MS snap-in control centre on the server for centralised distribution etc.

Edit : oops, changed, HP now come with Symantec.

We use McAfee. the ePO manager is a convoluted, bloated pain in the arse and is not easy to use despite having lots of features.

Used Sophos in my old workplace but that was years ago. Don't know what it is like now but the product and management tools were streets ahead of McAfee IMO.

I would pick Sophos over McAfee, don't know about any of the others though.

The DX2420's are coming with McAffee ATM

We use Symantec on our works PC's and laptops although when it comes up for renewal we may well switch over to Nod32 by Eset.

http://www.eset.co.uk/

One of my customers just did that. Caused havoc all over the world. Soooo many firewall changes needed.

Sophos.

from an end user's point of view I really don't like McAfee. Mainly because it maxes out a CPU core when you access either a zip or java file. If a zip file contains java it gets worse again. If I try to do anything a large file like this, say a download of Eclipse my machine becomes completely unresponsive for a while.

Looks like we will be going with G-Data, they throw in an extra year free for cross-graders.

Seen it in action and it looks pretty good and controlled through the MSC, whilst Symantec uses 2 or 3 different programs to control updates and distribution.

I certainly don't get to tinker with it, but we use McAfee on our legacy HPs and newer Dell Pentium DCs at work...