BernardLugalia - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Reseller
Top 5
Easy to navigate and configure
Pros and Cons
  • "Application control and traffic encryption are the most valuable features."
  • "We need to consolidate multiple features into one console. It would be beneficial to have all the important features on a single platform."

What is our primary use case?

It works perfectly for reporting and creating policies. It's easier for the customers. Reporting is a significant functionality.

What is most valuable?

Application control and traffic encryption are the most valuable features. The encryption feature includes Drive Encryption and supports a lot of features like antivirus encryption. It consolidates my system.

What needs improvement?

There's one room for improvement. We need to consolidate multiple features into one console. It would be beneficial to have all the important features on a single platform. Instead of using separate agents for tasks like antivirus and demos, it would be better to have a unified agent that can handle everything.

I would like a unified agent that can handle multiple tasks.

Another useful feature would be an email solution. It could be helpful. Also, having the capability to check for data vulnerabilities would be a great addition. In the future release, I would like to have a feature that checks for vulnerabilities

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with this solution for 20 years. I am currently working with Version 5.10.

Buyer's Guide
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is medium. I would rate it six because it can be resource-intensive and impact performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Most of the features are scalable, especially when transitioning to newer versions.

I would give it a rating of ten for scalability. Approximately around 50 to 100 users are currently using McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. Some clients are small businesses, while others are enterprise-level.

How are customer service and support?

The tool itself is great, but the technical support is not always perfect. There have been some support issues.

When there are issues, it often takes a considerable amount of time to resolve them, especially for domain-related problems. We are not given the right support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. I would rate it a ten out of ten. The deployment process depends on various factors, such as the network. Usually, it takes a few days.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment process involves licensing, installing APL, integrating with the directory, and then configuring policies based on best practices. We also customize some policies to fit the client's environment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost is high compared to other clients who prefer lower pricing.
In terms of pricing, I can give it an eight.

If you need any additional solutions, you would have to pay extra on a monthly basis.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it as the best, around nine, because it's easy to navigate and configure.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
cybersecurity specialist at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Improves endpoint security well but takes a lot of resources to do so.
Pros and Cons
  • "The feature that I have found most valuable is its general purpose of protecting our endpoints from infections, malicious files, and all those kinds of things. The fact that there are organized policies and policy inheritance. The general management."
  • "The impact of the agent on the endpoint's performance - the resources it takes. Additionally, the difficulties we experience with inheriting and breaking inheritance on the organization's structure breakdown for policy inheritance and then for rules inheritance. We are actually struggling with this."

How has it helped my organization?

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator improves our general endpoint security - wherever a user might be tricked into clicking on a link or downloading a file or bringing a file on an external medium or getting it from somewhere on the internet. After having detected that it could be malicious, it blocks it. That's the main reason we protect our endpoints.

What is most valuable?

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is our general endpoint protection platform. The agent is deployed to all of our endpoints and according to the endpoint's purpose, e.g. industrial or office-like, it is configured properly and is managed centrally. That's quite all there is to explain about that.

The feature that I have found most valuable is its general purpose of protecting our endpoints from infections, malicious files, and all those kinds of things. Also the fact that there are organized policies and policy inheritance. The general management, in fact, nothing particular.

What needs improvement?

In terms of what could be improved, I would say the impact of the agent on the endpoint's performance - the resources it takes. Additionally, the difficulties we experience with inheriting and breaking inheritance on the organization's structure breakdown for policy inheritance and then for rules inheritance. We are actually struggling with this.

As for what I would like to see in the next release, that is related to the disadvantages, the drawbacks as I would call it. Some tuning of the inheritances for policies and things, so that we can extend policies to a lower level in the organization or in the structure. Inherit and extend rather than break the inheritance and start again on a lower level, because then, when on a higher level, and something changes, it has to be replicated on a lower level, rather than being taken automatically into account which complicates the management. Additionally, some performance tuning on the endpoints to make sure the agent does not take too much resources or it could be further granularly customized. Something like it should not take more than X percent of memory or of CPU in office hours, business hours, and could take more outside of those hours. So some tweaks, improvements, and configuration options in these areas.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator for four or five years. It's still our current platform.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is quite stable. We're not having any issues with that.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. That's not an issue.

All the endpoints are protected with the platform and the servers, as well. It is something like 8,000 endpoints and 500 servers, quite a lot. In our Belgium branch of the company we're actually talking about almost everyone, we're like 5,000 employees, so that's only for Belgium. But there are more endpoints than the number of employees, of course.

There are the general workstations. Some users have more than one endpoint assigned to them, or a business or team's endpoints that are used in common within the team. That explains the larger number of endpoints compared to the number of employees we have in Belgium. There are different levels of the management who use this.

We have one guy in our team, in our Belgium site, that is almost fully dedicated to managing the antivirus product on the endpoint level, the workstation level. And then another person who is partially occupied, one third or half of his time for the server component. But as I told you, the endpoint workstations are being managed on a higher corporate level. There is also at least one person who concentrates some of his time on the management level. So, in total, for Belgium, let's say, two FTs.

I don't think we have any plans to increase because in fact, all our endpoints are covered. It grows and shrinks with the number of endpoints we have. The percentage stays the same.

How are customer service and support?

That's a question I can't answer because I haven't had to deal with them, personally. In general, when we're having issues, we turn to the higher corporate level, the Europe level, to know what their approach to the problem we might experience is. I've not noticed us having to deal directly with McAfee's technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was long before I arrived. Sorry, I couldn't tell you more.

The deployment is strongly dependent on our environment's size, the number of workstations to deploy on and to deploy new versions on. But in general to get to 90% coverage when we have to deploy a new version, it takes at least a month. That's mainly due to the number of endpoints and then to manage and to control them, to make sure they're communicating correctly, that they're powered on, and that they're on the network.

What other advice do I have?

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is a well-known product. It is a big one. It is quite easy to compare on those different criteria. It's not a new kid on the block, it's a known value, it's been there for a long time. In my point of view, it's worth comparing it to other products to see if it integrates with something you already have, because now there is a tendency to have more ecosystems of endpoint protection and server protection.

The Microsoft ecosystem, or parts of the Microsoft ecosystem, are already in place in the organization. There will be eventual integration with a corporate data center or pyramid in firewalling. Whether they are already in place or not, it is important to consider these elements and to make a decision after these considerations. Not that I would advise particularly for or against McAfee, but there are a lot of elements to take into account.

I think it serves its purpose, that's fair and square. But there are always things that could be optimized. Whether it's the performance impact on the endpoint, or the management, in general. No solution will ever fit 100% to an environment, whether it's your own or another, it will not always fit 100%. There will always be little drawbacks, little things that could be optimized. Then it's a question of how to handle it.

You have to live with some minor inconveniences. There are advantages, there are the things that are good. In general, it's a good product. I would not advise against it.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator a seven because of the reasons I told you. It does the job. It's quite solid. It's stable, of course. It's not something new, something experimental, it's proven itself already. And yeah, why not higher? Because of the things I told you already.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Instrument and Control Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reasonably priced and scalable but the stability is a concern
Pros and Cons
  • "Technical support is very helpful."
  • "Sometimes agents hang. We have to reinstall the agents."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution in order to distribute the security features to all the nodes.

What is most valuable?

The user interface is great.

Technical support is very helpful.

It's great how the solution distributes the policy. For example, application control, distribution management, et cetera. The functionality is fine. I don't have any issues. 

The integration capabilities are good.

The solution can scale well.

The pricing of the product is reasonable. 

What needs improvement?

Sometimes agents hang. We have to reinstall the agents. On top of that, we have too many advisories for ePO. There are stability issues. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three to four years at this point. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've had issues with stability. I would like the product to be more stable. 

Occasionally, we get bugs and we have to deal with them, and it's not ideal.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product can scale if a company needs it to.

I do plan to scale and would like to use it for more of the system nodes.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have found the technical support to be very helpful. They are responsive and available when we need them to help us troubleshoot. We are satisfied with their level of service. We haven't had any issues with them.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay a licensing fee on a yearly basis. The pricing itself is fine. I don't consider it to be overly expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm just a customer and an end-user. I don't have a business relationship with McAfee.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Security Specialist at Perth Airport
Real User
Can manage a very complex environment requiring fine tuning with a lot of exceptions
Pros and Cons
  • "If you set it up right, it can really manage a very complex environment which require fine tuning where there are a lot of exceptions. That's what it caters to. It can just do those specifics in those exceptional situations, which is good."
  • "While there are bugs and a few functionality issues, it is just a matter of raising them with the support team. However, support is part of the problem as well. You want everything to be seamless in a perfect world, but the support is spread across different countries. They have Level 1, 2, and 3. Level 1 is most likely in a developing country. They don't provide the best service."

What is our primary use case?

It is an endpoint protection product. You use it to centrally manage security policies and push out configurations, then you manage the antivirus on endpoints.

We use the on-premise deployment model.

How has it helped my organization?

If you're talking about endpoint, you have virus detection, behavioral-based detection in advanced threat detection, and even have host-based firewall, etc. Each of these would be a separate product that would integrate into the endpoint solution. From a cost perspective that would scale pretty quickly, which is not cheap. Also, it creates management overhead. We have to administer and configure it separately with a separate lists of policies. This is where it gets a bit complex, but it gives us the power to do things very specific. 

What is most valuable?

Once you understand how to use it, it becomes easy to use.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used the product for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is solid. It's a bit of a beast. We've used it in a very large environment where we manage around 150,000 endpoints, and it is able to cope with the load. It helps that our architecture around it is pretty solid. So, it works like a charm. 

There have been some issues with bugs and things from a functionality perspective. However, there are issues with everything.

It will become stable. We have had very specific issues. I am not blaming the product, as it could be the way the product is configured. There have been bugs and utilization problems where it may not be compatible with a certain operating system. You might find that there are certain processes that are just chewing up a lot of memory. There are known issues and errors. Things that do exist. We have seen this things quite often. It's just a matter of McAfee releasing a hotfix or stable version, which then needs to be tested and deployed correctly. We've been seeing quite a few of these.

These are systems with developer workstations or developer system services and are highly resource heavy. So, the API always has an impact.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. We have 150,000 endpoints using an agent handler in between. The scalability does require us to do a lot of planning for things, like bandwidth. The problem is with the complexity. If one thing breaks, it can also impact a bunch of other things.

It serves a purpose. If you set it up right, it can really manage a very complex environment which require fine tuning where there are a lot of exceptions. That's what it caters to. It can just do those specifics in those exceptional situations, which is good.

How are customer service and technical support?

While there are bugs and a few functionality issues, it is just a matter of raising them with the support team. However, support is part of the problem as well. You want everything to be seamless in a perfect world, but the support is spread across different countries. They have Level 1, 2, and 3. Level 1 is most likely in a developing country. They don't provide the best service.

Struggles like this impact the experience. If you have an issue, you want to get expedited within a certain amount of time. Sometimes, it just takes longer to get things done.

How was the initial setup?

It's easy to deploy. This does depend on the complexity of your environment, and it depends on how you set it up. You can make it as granular as you want. 

It is not something that's very easy to administer. You have to go for a course with training modules. Once you understand how to use it, it becomes easy. For a beginner, it's not that easy. It's a very complex system. If you know what you're doing, it becomes easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You get what you pay for.

McAfee tries to package different things into different products, then sell them as different products with different licenses. They just split everything up into multiple things. That's just their sales pitch and how they do it.

What other advice do I have?

It does provide a lot of functionality. 

ePO Cloud takes away a lot of the management administration overhead. Though, I haven't tried this feature.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Technical Support Engineer at Professional Technologies Kenya
Reseller
Top 5
MVISION Insights enables customers to see what's out there and we're getting less false positives
Pros and Cons
  • "We get fewer false positives than with other solutions."
  • "Features such as full drive encryption are lacking in the cloud version."

What is our primary use case?

We're using this solution for its antivirus and device control. We are partners with McAfee and resellers, and I am an engineer. 

What is most valuable?

The MVISION Insights is a good feature because it gives users the ability to see what's out there, which is what our customers are looking for. I know that they are adding ISO application control which is also a good feature.

What needs improvement?

There are some features available with the on-premise version that are unfortunately not available on cloud such as encryption. For now, there is only management for native encryption and not full drive encryption. I'd like to see more integration and a lighter antivirus; most of the complaints from customers relate to the search utilization.

There needs to be more integration. Customers want to see MVISION Cloud integrated with things like SIEM, whether it's Microsoft, Fortinet, or something else.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable, quite a number of our customers are running it and there haven't really been any problems. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is very good and they respond quite quickly. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy and the system only requires one person that has reasonable knowledge to manage it. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think that licensing costs are reasonable and you get your money's worth.  

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Companies like Palo Alto and Check Point have amazing SOAR solutions; in the case of Check Point it's an EDR type solution. I think McAfee MVISION is much better now that we have things like Insights. McAfee's advantage is that there are fewer false positives compared to some of these other vendors, so I'd say they're doing well.

What other advice do I have?

There is a trade-off between the on-prem version and the cloud version. Some features that are available on-prem are not available on cloud but there are other features we can get on cloud that are not available on-prem. I believe this is a good solution and rate it nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Owner at Network Technics & Systems Ltd
Real User
Easy to set up and lets you centrally manage devices and endpoints from a single console
Pros and Cons
  • "What I like the most is the ability to manage centrally, to manage the various devices, the platform, and the endpoint, all from one console."
  • "The rollout to cover the online resources, such as SharePoint, One Drive, and Office 365 doesn't seem to have a very clear path."

What is our primary use case?

We are a system integrator and McAffee MVISION ePO is one of the security products that we implement for our clients.

The primary use case of my customer is to protect the endpoints. It is important because of people who are working from home, and the diverse platforms that are apart from the workers who have a different environment.

They are also spread over different countries and many different towns. The cloud platform is the best to communicate the management of devices and security.

Also, besides, it offers protection compliance.

What is most valuable?

What I like the most is the ability to manage centrally, to manage the various devices, the platform, and the endpoint, all from one console.

What needs improvement?

The rollout to cover the online resources, such as SharePoint, One Drive, and Office 365 doesn't seem to have a very clear path. There is a lot of different information all over the place and there's probably a need to have some technical ability to understand how to bring solutions to fruition.

There doesn't seem to be any documentation in place to guide you. Unless you are a technical person, it's very difficult to bring that solution to fruition.

The product is good but they just have to document how to use the different products and bring them into one platform, one solution. You shouldn't need to be a technical person to do that.

You can roll out to all of the endpoints easily, but now if I need to protect the online cloud resources like SharePoint sites or SharePoint libraries, that is where the biggest worry is because people feel things like the cloud contains threats. They're not concerned with how to do it or to make sure that they have visibility and protection. 

This is where it gets a little bit tricky, but even McAfee themselves are not giving a very clear road map or very clear documentation to know this is how to go about it, and this is how to achieve it. Again, we do not have to have a technical background to be able to synchronize.

I think that they should drop their high costs of training. Many people will train themselves and still sell the product. They implement their product and they will recommend it. If they make the training available then the uptake will be higher.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with this solution for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not experienced any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't been faced with any limitations regarding scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

McAfee's technical support is a bit of a letdown. Also, there's no good support within our region. The people who are within our region do nothing, they just sell you licenses. The moment that you have a problem, you are on your own. They keep bouncing you between this department or person, or you end up with somebody who has no idea, and then now there is so much up and down that we end up now doing things on our own.

You can send an email to support and you will get a response in a couple of days and maybe that response is to refer you to someone else.

How was the initial setup?

Bringing the ePO and central management on board was very easy and very straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

For large enterprise companies, the price should be alright, but for small businesses, the uptake might be slow because, for these clients, the price doesn't look very attractive.

So people will compare, they are going to acknowledge and pick up a CD or go with Kaspersky, or Bitdefender. They feel that it's easier than suffering to get the information, that's the problem. One of the advantages of working remotely is that you can pick up a Bitdefender DVD and pop it into all of the laptops and other devices.

What other advice do I have?

I can recommend this solution, maybe because of my own background and my own portfolio, I have been working with it for a year and I know how to market it, I know what works and what doesn't work.

When It comes to the training, it's a letdown because online training is very expensive, and they want people to sell and use their product. They are making training modules, which are very expensive.

They also tell you that if you want to buy the product, you must be certified, but to be certified is very expensive at my own cost, then I can sell the product. There are many products like this being sold in our region. You sell the products for them but they charge you for training.

It's a good product, it's a good solution, it's straightforward, and it works very well. At the same time, we shouldn't have to pay to learn it, just to sell it. They should brunt the costs of the training for their resellers.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Network Security Planning at Ooredoo Kuwait
Reseller
A good interface that provides centralized control over our endpoints
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of this solution are the antivirus and the DLP."
  • "The Virtual Patching feature needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We have been using this solution for almost seven years.

The primary use case for this solution is to protect our endpoints. We are using an on-premises deployment model.

How has it helped my organization?

This is a centralized solution, and we have very good control over the endpoints when using this product.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of this solution are the antivirus and the DLP.

The interface, dashboard, and reporting are all very good.

What needs improvement?

The Virtual Patching feature needs to be improved.

We would also like to have something in the cloud.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution is fine.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is very much scalable.

We have more than fifteen-hundred users. It is our only protection that we have for our endpoints, and we plan to increase its usage as we grow.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would rate technical support an eight out of ten.

They do help to resolve issues quickly, but sometimes the responses come back late.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Symantec prior to this solution, but we switched because of the cost.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward.

Our deployment took place within one week.

What about the implementation team?

Our reseller assisted us with the deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This solution is priced in the mid-range.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Trend Micro before choosing this solution, but we selected this one because of pricing and features.

What other advice do I have?

This is a solution that I recommend and would suggest for others to use.

The biggest thing that I have learned from using this solution is that it is very easy to use.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Binu Haneef - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at International Media Investments
Real User
Top 20
Effective policy management, quick installation, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "The valuable feature of the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is the management of the policies."
  • "McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator support has been helpful. However, sometimes when I raise the case they take a while to answer. For example, the last time I used them it took them two weeks to reply back by email. No one has contacted me back since. They should improve their service."

What is our primary use case?

We have deployed McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator in the cloud and on-premise.

We are using McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator mainly for device policy management. We have many different solutions that we manage with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator.

What is most valuable?

The valuable feature of the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is the management of the policies.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 1,200 users using McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator in my organization. If we expand we will purchase more licenses.

How are customer service and support?

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator support has been helpful. However, sometimes when  I raise the case they take a while to answer. For example, the last time I used them it took them two weeks to reply back by email. No one has contacted me back since. They should improve their service.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not used another solution in this category.

How was the initial setup?

The implementation of the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is simple, it took us approximately 45 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation of the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator is not an expensive solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.