A raft of McAfee products have gone into end-of-life (EOL) since Intel took over. We look into the issues this is likely to create, now and in the immediate future.
“It’s been six years since Intel bought McAfee, during which the company has pursued an aggressive end-of-life (EOL) policy across its product range, unleashing what IT publication CRN called ‘waves of uncertainty’ in its core markets”, says Daniel Wade, software engineer from essaywriter.nyc company.
A visit to McAfee’s EOL support pages reveals a current drop-down menu listing scores of products that have been put into, or are scheduled to be put into, EOL – meaning no further availability of technical support and essentially, therefore, the impending end of the product’s viability for end-users and partners alike.
And although clear migration paths are available for some of these products, for others they are conspicuous by their absence, or are simply replaced by a (presumably more expensive) “upgrade”.
The outcome is inescapable: multiple security solutions are no longer available from McAfee, and each case of EOL leaves a hole that both end-users and security partners will potentially need to look elsewhere to fill.
McAfee EOL: the critical list
Regrettably, the EOL products that appear to have no clear migration path are also the ones that cover the truly critical threat vectors like networks (Asset Manager), email (Email Gateway), mobile devices (Enterprise Mobility Management), and data protection (Endpoint Encryption).
Unfathomably, even Content Security Suite, which combines many of these defences in one convenient package, is destined for the axe.
Intel spoke of “tough tradeoffs” in making these EOL decisions, but the reality is that they have proven – and will continue to prove – tougher still for customers and partners.
The apparent absence of clarity regarding the migration path from one product to a subsequent version or replacement spells disruption, whichever way you slice it.
Should end-users (and partners) simply trust that Intel will come up with something better? Should they be looking to other vendors? If so, which?
And should they seize the simplicity of “going direct”, or should they source the products through a distributor, in the hope that the inconvenience of an added link in the supply chain might be offset by value-adds like services, support, consulting, rewards and benefits, and the like?
Beyond McAfee EOL: what next?
Two factors are worth nothing here.
Firstly, at least some of McAfee’s products won’t go into EOL for a short while yet – so there is breathing space to find and trial alternatives.
Secondly, the security market is evolving fast. Established players like McAfee are coming under pressure from a swathe of specialist security vendors, including the new “big names” like Trend Micro, as well as agile arrivals like Bitdefender, Malwarebytes and others. Essentially, when McAfee stops delivering, there is no shortage of vendors who could potentially step in.
Watch this space for our next blog, which will explore some of the most compelling post-McAfee options for resellers, MSPs and end-users alike.
