McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator Reviews

I have been working with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator since 2005.

We are a service provider and system integrator, and this is one of the solutions that we provide for our clients. Most of the deployments we have done are on-premises.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to configure and deploy everything from a single, web-based interface.

This solution ships with SQL Express, and we have issues related to database corruption in the event of power loss. Especially on this side of the world, we have a lot of power outages and most companies do not have backup power solutions. In most cases, when the power goes out, the database tends to corrupt a lot. For example, clients will be having trouble logging on because the login credentials are corrupt. They have to do something to make the solution more resilient or recoverable from power failure events, which may include creating their own database.

This is a stable solution to use. The only problem that I've noticed relates to updates, and it has only started recently. After getting an update, there are issues with connecting. It all comes down to how often the machines update their Windows OS. McAfee tends to have a problem with connectivity and stuff like that.

In terms of scalability, McAfee is the best there is from all of the products that I've used. Why I say that is because you can manage a lot of products if you install the endpoint security pack. The is one of the products that has impressed me over the years. There is a version of the solution that actually allows you to manage certain versions of Symantec products. So, this is a good product, and when it comes to scalability, I think it's one of those products that you won't go wrong with.

We do have some larger corporate clients, but there are not many of them. Most of the client base in Zimbabwe is small to medium-sized business. The majority have less than two-hundred and fifty PCs on-site, which I consider being small or medium size. We also do support for hospitals, schools, universities, and even government.

McAfee technical support is ok, but we do not contact them very often. Every year, they impose certifications on us, so in most cases, we have certifications for the different products that we support. This means that we hardly require support because we are well equipped when it comes to doing our job. If we do get something that we don't quite understand, McAfee has got a knowledge base that we usually refer to. This is helpful when it comes to some of the problems that we face.

Over the years, I've noticed that the initial setup is very easy. It may be because I've worked with it for a long time, but the initial setup is easy, and even when it comes to doing the configuring for the projects, it is not complex.

Most of the setups that I have done are on-premises, where I have to set up the physical machine, and I haven't had any problems. It usually takes less than thirty minutes for everything to be set up and the deployment complete.

We implement this solution for our clients.

This is a solution I recommend very much. For anybody who is implementing this solution, I suggest that they read through the product manuals and documentation. I have noticed that it is an advantage to read through the manuals because people who do not, tend to miss things, and then blame the product for not working. I would say that McAfee is a good product, and over the years I have found it to be very stable and very effective when it comes to managing other products. We have all that we wanted to do with McAfee.

In the time that I have been using this solution, I've noticed that when I perform a setup on different platforms or different networks, I've gotten to learn new things because each and every network is different. When it comes to troubleshooting network issues, I have learned a lot, especially things related to cybersecurity.

This is a very good product, but they have a database issue. Having a McAfee-only solution, rather than having to bring in a Microsoft product, or one from another vendor would make this solution perfect.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I use McAfee as a solution to monitor our network log systems. I monitor logs and use it to be able to report incidents and get better internal vision. 

The DLP feature is great to have for our users.

There are some issues relating to the automation of reports. That's why I wanted the DLP reports. There are some problems in this area. Sometimes it does not work even though all the configuration words are right. There are also some problems with automatic updates.  

There have been some problems with monitoring the logs. It's not very user-friendly. 

Stability is fine. I haven't had many issues with it.

Scalability is fine. We have around 600 users. We required two or three staff for maintenance and monitoring. They're security analysts, and junior consultants.

Their support is really good. I would rate it a nine out of ten. I have never any issues with their support. They always reply and follow our queries on time.

The initial setup was not straightforward. It takes time to deploy and configure. 

I have not had too many problems with this solution. It works fine. I really like the DLP feature. There are no database issues. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten because it gives IT clarity, it doesn't have database issues, and it hasn't crashed or given us problems in the two years we've been using it. It's a great tool.

The solution handles risk and compliance aspects for our company. It handles everything including uploading documents, etc.

I don't use the solution in a technical way, so the technical aspects of the solution I'm not clear on.

The central management console is the solution's most valuable aspect.

The solution needs to be more clear about the licensing. They should have a way for users to educate themselves on the costs so that companies can figure out how to reduce costs.

There needs to be support for Mac computers. Currently, McAfee does not work on iOS.

I've been working with the solution for the last five years.

The solution has been quite stable for us. We haven't had any issues at all.

We have about 2500 people using the solution in our organization. They're a mix of people, including engineers and architects. We use it quite extensively - on a regular basis.

The solution is scalable, but the issue for us is that the pricing can be quite high.

We've been in touch with technical support in the past. They've been quite good. We've been satisfied with their level of service.

In the past, we've worked with Symantec, ForcePoint, and Barracuda. McAfee has some features that aren't part of other competitor's feature sets. Overall, however, from a technical point of view, they are all mostly the same.

The initial setup is quite simple. We didn't find it complex at all.

I was not there during the original implementation. I'm very new to this organization. I had just joined the team a few months ago. This solution has been running for the last five years, so I don't have more historical data in relation to the original setup.

We have two software engineers overseeing the project.

Comparatively, the pricing is quite low.

We're a McAfee customer. We don't have a specific relationship with the organization. We are using the latest version of the solution.

The solution is quite good and stable right now, but there are a lot of other products coming to the market. I'm currently investigating what other features customers need or are using to see if we can develop these out on this solution or not. 

Many organizations will find the solution has may features that would suit their needs and reduce the number of issues they face. However, it does depend on the individual company and what their unique requirements are.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

I am an information system security coordinator and our company is a customer of McAfee. We use the product internally. Our primary use case is for protecting workstations, and servers. We use the antivirus with several modules that have a threat intelligence exchange, DLP and threat protection. It is a firewall hosting through the prevention system, web control and adaptive threat protection. The solution is for workstations and Windows servers. Approximately 1,300 administrators use the product and we have two people responsible for backup.

It's a mandatory system for the protection of endpoints. Without it, the system could be compromised. 

The central manager policy is valuable. It means we have almost all client modules in one solution, which is great. Having firewall web control adapted for protection, and a very easy management console to monitor an infection is important. 

From my point of view, the solution is good. Even if there are problems we're able to find a resolution quite quickly. There were some issues in earlier versions but after the upgrade to the latest version, we haven't had any issues. 

I have noticed several times that some viruses were not detected by McAfee ENS and we had to escalate support and modify detection signatures. The detection aspect should be improved so that signatures are updated more quickly.

For additional features, there really isn't very much to suggest. The main issue would be to improve detection. 

I've been using the product for more than 10 years. 

Stability is good, we haven't had any down time or issues. 

The product is very scalable, it's very easy to add users.

I'm happy with the technical support. 

We've been using McAfee for as long as I've been in the company.

I don't recall how much time it took for the initial deployment but it was a very easy setup, and updates, new versions, etc. are also easy to setup. Deployment is quite a quick process, maximum one hour for a console but now we just do the regular upgrades to the latest version which is a simple process. 

In addition to standard licensing fees, there is an additional cost for every module. 

My advice would be to read the documentation and carry out implementation. It is not complicated, just a matter of deciding which vendor to use.

Because we have a corporate contract, the price is reasonable. We're happy with everything - the dashboard, user interface - it's all good. 

I would rate this product a nine out of 10. 

We have a lot of endpoints and the major use case for us is to secure the endpoints. That includes computers, servers, etc.

Easy deployment of agents from console and management of endpoints. The graphical interface of the solution. They have a good log event system. If you're able to trace it in the log, all you need to do is to whitelist the IP when you see a false positive.

The solution sometimes has some false positives on connections from the web control aspect of the product. This needs to be improved.

When you have false positive on the firewall, it rarely blocks off some legitimate connections to our network. 

The reporting could be better. 

Search or filter on Knowledge base gives broad choices instead of almost specific to your search. 

agent communication between client and server but products are not deployed.

I've been using the solution for more than two years at this point. It hasn't been too long.

The solution is extremely stable. We haven't had any issues whatsoever. It's reliable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. The only real issue we have is that there are often false positives, however, it's easy to fix in the logs.

The solution is very scalable. You just need to add more licenses. That's it.

As it's an antivirus for our endpoints, everybody in our company technically uses the solution. Everyone is affected by it.

We plan to use the solution in the future. I'm unsure as to if we'll expand our usage or not.

Technical support is okay. We get support from a McAfee partner here in Nigeria who liaises with the OEM too. We've been satisfied with the level of service provided.

McAfee has a portal for customers or partners to use, for product packages, updates, knowledge base, tools, technical support

The solution's implementation is pretty easy to install. It's very straightforward once you have your database. It's not complex.

When I joined the company, it was in migration. I wasn't there from the start, so I can't say how long it took. However, I was around when they did the migration and that took less than a month.

Through vendor team. McAfee partner consultant and they have their own local support team. They are resellers and partners in Nigeria. We were quite satisfied with their professionalism and knowledge.

Choose your anniversary cycle e.g. pay annually.

You just pay for what you want your license to cover. It is modular. It depends on the feature you want. There's the firewall, DLP, drive encryption, web control, threat prevention, antispam, etc. Scope your requirement and choose to fore what covers your requirement or budget. It depends on what you want to use it for. It's got amazing flexibility.

As an end user, I'd recommend the solution. McAfee ePO has many more features and covers more. A company looking for a new solution really needs to do some initial research to ensure their requirements are met.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall.

The most valuable feature is the centralized management. From a single dashboard, I can take a look at several things including the endpoint protection, the file integrity section, the data activity monitor, and more.

The dashboard is simple to use.

There is a problem when it comes to agent communication and duplicate records, where the rebooting of a machine leads to the installation of a new agent and you get a lot of duplicate records that ultimately affect your compliance monitoring.

I have been using McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator for about three years.

With respect to stability, I would like to see improvements made in terms of agent communication and compliance.

I have not had the need to scale this product.

We had a local technical support company and did not deal with McAfee at the regional level. I can say that our local support was quite decent.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I like the following features:

• Centralized virus signatures and patch updates.
• Reports of signature update status.
• HIP management and automatic product deployment.
• Allows virus signatures and VirusScan Enterprise patch updates via McAfee agents installed on the user's PC.

Before this solution, I had to do the following:

• Set up daily virus signatures and product updates on each PC in the office. These are the configurable parameters in the McAfee VirusScan Enterprise application.
• Perform regular spot checks on some PCs to make sure the virus signatures are being updated. As the number of PCs increases, I needed to find a solution to handle this task.

With this solution, all I have to do is install the McAfee Agent on a PC. When the McAfee agent communicates with the ePO server, ePO checks if VirusScan Enterprise is installed on the PC.

If it is not installed, it will start the deployment, patch updates, and virus signature updates. The ePO server is configured to send me a report of virus signature versions and VirusScan Enterprise patch levels of all connected PCs by email on a daily basis. This saves me a lot of my time, as I don’t have to check this information on all PCs manually. I end up with a beautiful report to show my auditor about how the anti-virus software is implemented.

This solution reduced a lot of effort to check and confirm that all PCs are running the latest anti-virus signatures and patch levels. It also helps the IT admin to find the mapping between the logged-on user ID and the PC name which Windows AD doesn't provide.

I would like to see the solution provide a function to roll back patch deployment and alert the administrator about which system is not supported per patch level. It should retain all previous patches in the system to support legacy systems, including the latest patch that was checked in the system.

We have been using this solution for over six years.

The system is quite stable and works as expected.

There is no built-in or easy upgrade of the system. When I upgraded the system from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version last year, I basically reinstalled the whole environment.

The initial setup is very straightforward. The IT administrator can install and setup basic functions of the system without a user manual.

However, for some complicated functions like drive encryption, it is better to read the user manual before deployment.

Make sure you understand the following:

• The license terms and how they are applied to the user or device.
• What products are covered.
• The dates of the license period.
• Whether or not the agreement will be automatically renewed with an increase in price.
• Whether the price is different when running on a server or on other special devices.
• The support SLA and if there are any additional charges if the problem is complicated. If you do this, you won’t be surprised when you call support.

I would suggest the following:

• Set up a test environment. Test all products you are going to deploy on all platforms you have before actual deployment.
• The testing environment should be retained since new patches may impact some legacy systems.
• Plan your implementation and application deployment. Write down all parameters you put into the system configuration. Link this with Windows AD for user authentication.
• Prepare your SMTP server for an email setup alert.
• If you are going to use it to manage McAfee VirusScan, make sure you set it with up-to-date virus signatures from McAfee, at least on a daily basis. This is not enabled by default.
• Consult your IT vendor for best practices.

• Centralized management
• The scalability
• The report engine

I made an MSS (Managed Security Service) solution based on the ePO and McAfee Endpoint products.

This was before all the vendors made it themselves, and when I researched the major vendors, this was the best product for the project.

The fact that it uses MSSQL, and cannot be deployed on anything other than Windows, can be a problem. The system can get slow at times when you do big searches and reports.

I've been using it since 2007.

We had some issues with deployments as this product was not made to be set up as an MSSP solution but we had a lot of help from McAfee, and fixed them all.

The problems with stability as never in the ePO but in the Operative system (Microsoft Windows) and the database server (Microsoft SQL).

The scalability is very good.

We were a McAfee EMEA Premier Managed Service Provider at the time, so we had no problems getting the support we needed.

10/10.

F-Secure, but their product did not scale, and there are so many more endpoint products, that the ePO can handle than F-Secures Central management system.

It was not the easiest projects I did, but with help from McAfee it was not that difficult.

We implemented it in-house.

We were a managed service provider, so the licensing was not what most customers have. We report in what we use, and pay after.

We looked at several options.

If you use any McAfee endpoint solutions in the enterprise you need to use the ePO, as there are no other options.