I mentioned Bullguard in a previous blog when I was ranting about how complicated AV products were. Sounds amazing but when I found it, I predicted just from the marketing and the website that Bullguard was revolutionary; and I was right. You install it and you don’t have to touch it (apart from the firewall). Email is automatically protected, updates are downloaded automatically (really quick, about 2 seconds) and regularly scheduled. The interface makes it obvious that you KNOW that you are protected. Don’t make me have to think, Failsafe, No Bull! Great.
Firewalls ARE complicated beasts but bullguard does it well. Although, if you are already behind a firewall just turn it off (unlike other programs its easy to find the switch).
Bullguard also has an offsite data back-up service with 10MB included in the $30 annual charge which I have mixed fealings about. Firstly, in a business context do you want to have employees storing company data off-site and the touch of a button? Secondly, Its maybe not logical but if you are paying for AV and you don’t want firewall or data storage, you don’t like paying for what you don’t use.
I was so exited by it that I tried to implement Bullguard for a client in a in a small office environment. However Bullguard is so aimed at the home user and I experienced these problems.
1) You can’t buy multiple copies of Bullguard in a single transaction. So if you wanted 4 copies you have to do 4 online transactions – every year.
2) No Win 2000 Server Version
So there, the marketing message was so good for the home market but leaves the business user flat.
So I went back and looked at AVG. It has a Server Version, you can order a server + 5 license package for 24 months and get an invoice sent. It protects Outlook express fairly easily (but not automatically). AVG is good but not as sweet as Bullguard.
