APPLE FROM PAGE 35 used on computer systems at mer- OS X versions of their products,
instances within your OS X system chant sites that are “commonly including McAfee and Sophos,
is the route to Windows application affected by viruses.” The standard both of which integrate OS X anti-
accessibility offered by Apple’s Boot goes on to single out Unix-based virus administration into the same
Camp, a well-implemented utility operating systems—a class of management consoles that govern
for turning a Mac com- the Windows flavors of
puter into a dual boot OS theiranti-virusproducts.
X/Windows machine. Symantec, meanwhile,
Boot Camp works markets a consumer-
well and can deliver oriented, “two anti-
increased performance virus products in one”
c o m p a r e d w i t h o n e offering that’s meant to
of the virtualization- provide coverage both
basedoptions, particularly for OS X and for the
when the Mac system in Windows instance that
question is low on RAM. may reside in a Boot
However, the issues of Camp configuration.
paying for and maintain- Last fall, Trend Micro
ing a separate operating and OS X security soft-
system instance remain, ware company Intego
and while a user is booted announced a partner-
into Windows, Mac appli- ship to bring Intego’s
cations are inaccessible. anti-virus software for
Anti-virus OS X to Trend Micro’s
Top: The removal of Visual Basic means macros embedded in Excel customers, albeit under
can’t be read. Bottom: With Fusions Unity option enabled, I could
looming large among launch Windows applications from a tool bar-based menu. separate management
the management issues interfaces. ´
that come with nesting Windows which OS X is a member—as not
instances within the Macs in your commonly affected by malware. eWEEK Labs Executive Editor Jason
care is that of maintaining anti- However, most of the major play- Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@
virus software on those Windows ers in the anti-virus space do offer eweek.com.
instances. Fortunately (or unfortu-
nately), most organizations have
become all too familiar with deploy- UPDATE FROM PAGE 37 ized applications—so a one-size-fits-
ing and managing anti-virus prod- has some serious limitations for this all application package would be a
ucts on their Windows clients, and kind of deployment. For instance, poor fit indeed.
whether you’re tapping virtualiza- you cannot have different software There can be no doubt that Apple is
tion or dual-boot configurations distribution policies on the same courting the enterprise to the iPhone.
to bring Windows into your Apple SUS server. If you want different There can also be no doubt that Apple
hardware, these anti-virus manage- versions of applications available to is releasing tools to help adminis-
ment processes will remain mostly different clients, then you need to trators control the sprawl of Apple
unchanged. have another SUS iteration available software in an organization. But we
Less clear for many organiza- with the different policy. can only hope the two themes will
tions is the role that native anti- This may be adequate for appli- intertwinetoprovideadministrators a
virus software for OS X instances cations on a computer—Apple rep- single solution to rein in both Apple’s
can or should play. For instance, the resentatives would argue that the hardware and software footprint on
PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry majority of IT departments want to all devices. ´
Data Security Standard) guidelines keep software versions consistent—
through which credit card issuers but this would definitely not be the eWEEK Labs Senior Analyst Andrew
enforce data protection mandates case for a mobile device. Different Garcia can be reached at agarcia@
that anti-virus software must be departments would require special- eweek.com.
