Network Associates this week will unveil a grand plan to integrate its antivirus offerings.
By the end of this month, the vendor intends to ship corporate desktop software called VirusScan 4.0 Enterprise Edition. The new software will combine Dr. Solomon's virus-detection and cleaning technology with McAfee's hostile applet detection. Customers will be able to manage corporate distribution of VirusScan 4.0 desktop software through an NT-based workstation or server using Dr. Solomon's Management Edition.
Network Associates purchased Dr. Solomon's just last June, "and even though we had the McAfee NetTools console, we chose Dr. Solomon's because it's easier to use and has better functionality," says Sal Viveros, director of antivirus product marketing.
Network Associates, which by some estimates now controls about 60 per cent of the worldwide antivirus software market, has big plans to roll out what it calls "auto-immune" technology in its revamped antivirus line by the middle of next year. In theory, by putting an auto-immune server within a corporate setting, you'll be able to automatically detect unidentified viruses and extract them from a file. The virus would then be sent on, with an alert, to the network administrator's auto-immune console.
