In 1987, Peter Paško and Miroslav Trnka found one of the earliest computer viruses, which they called Vienna, and created software to detect it.
That same year, the pair created their first commercial antivirus tool called NOD. The name came from the Czechoslovak TV show “Hospital at the Edge of the Disc,” though you’d have to speak the language to know how that exactly turned into NOD.
Twenty-five years later the duo is still going at it, and their company ESET now has over 100 million users, 800 employees, and over the last five years reportedly grew 524 percent. The company is based in Bratislava, Slovakia.
After a quarter century, the company has more than its share of security tools, many of which it just wrapped together in the neat little ESET Business Solutions bundle.
The cross-platform bundle includes antimalware for mobiles, servers and endpoint devices, and is sold, like most malware tools, on a subscription basis.
The bundles come in four forms. Standard includes anti-virus, mobile security and file protection. Advanced adds to that anti-spam, firewall and content filtering.
Secure Business is for companies that need all their file servers and mobile and PC devices secured from phishing and malware attacks, along with security for mail.
Finally, Secure Enterprise is for shops that have at least one Internet gateway server, and need protection at the network perimeter.
The MSP Hook
For MSPs, there are a variety of ways to exploit ESET wares.
The company licenses its antimalware engine, which it fully believes is “one of the fastest and lightest in the industry. It is perfectly suited for high-performance hardware and software applications.”
ESET has APIs and an SDK for third-party integration, and sees it as appropriate for RMM and MSP integrations as well as adding value to Web and e-mail gateways.
Partners can co-brand or white label ESET tools, or take advantage of software or PC bundling and pre-installations.
In 2010, Gartner placed ESET in its Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms.
“Its Completeness of Vision score benefits from good Malware effectiveness in a lightweight client, but it still suffers from weak enterprise management capabilities and lack of investments in market-leading features, such as data protection or more-holistic security state assessments,” Gartner said in 2010. “ESET is a good shortlist option for organizations seeking effective, lightweight anti-malware scan engines and personal firewalls that do not have extensive management requirements.”
Edited by
Alisen Downey
