We have deployed the Trend Micro product suite across all our servers and workstations, including their XDR component, Vision One.
Our decision to switch from Kaspersky to Trend Micro stemmed from the concerns surrounding Kaspersky and the Russian government. Following those developments, we were advised to discontinue using Kaspersky and began the process of evaluating alternative security solutions. Trend Micro ultimately emerged as our preferred choice due to their exceptional support during the proof-of-concept stage. Unlike other vendors, Trend Micro proactively dispatched an engineer to our corporate headquarters at their own expense to assist with setting up and running the POC, demonstrating their commitment to our success. Vision One was released a year into our contract and we were able to work with the Trend Micro account team to deploy it in our organization.
Previously, our security setup with Trend Micro was entirely on-premises. This meant we were managing our backend servers and manually reviewing security updates. It was a time-consuming process, especially when vulnerabilities arose in their on-prem products. Reviewing briefing files and ensuring everything was patched was a constant burden. Moving to the cloud was a game-changer. The maintenance of backend servers is now handled by Trend Micro, freeing up our resources. We receive monthly emails notifying us of upcoming maintenance, and they take care of everything behind the scenes. It's a breeze. Vision One has always been cloud-based, but our previous on-premises solutions included their endpoint product Apex One, server product Deep Security, and exchange product. When we transitioned to the cloud, Apex One remained our endpoint protection, while Deep Security evolved into Cloud One. Additionally, Cloud App Security was introduced, providing security features for SharePoint and Teams alongside Exchange Cloud.
Trend Vision One streamlines our security by centralizing data collection and threat management. It pulls data from Exchange, SharePoint, endpoints, and servers to the cloud, providing a unified view of our IT environment. This centralized data feeds into advanced playbooks that automatically block URLs and files based on predefined conditions, reducing our reliance on manual intervention. For potential threats requiring further analysis, Vision One flags them for human review, allowing security personnel to quickly approve or deny access to specific URLs or files. These decisions then inform the suspicious object lists used across all deployed Trend Micro products, maximizing our overall security posture. In short, Vision One effectively automates routine tasks while empowering security teams to focus on critical decisions, making it a valuable asset for our organization.
Vision One grants us centralized visibility and management across our protection layers. With its ongoing development, Trend Micro has steadily consolidated this visibility into a single pane of glass.
Centralized visibility significantly improves our efficiency. Instead of scouring endpoints or hopping between the mail server and data lake, we can consolidate our search for malicious activity into one central location. Vision One empowers us to leverage comprehensive search parameters and scan all data within the data lake, not just data limited to specific products.
For me, the executive dashboard is always the first one I check. Then, I turn to the operations dashboard for a more detailed look. These two dashboards provide a comprehensive overview of our security posture, drawing data from internal and external assets, application agents without vulnerability assessments, and detected account compromises. Vision One also excels at alerting us to potential risks, including accounts exposed to data breaches. I've personally experienced this when the executive dashboard's risk score suddenly spiked due to flagged accounts. After investigating and confirming the risk, we dismiss the alert and the score adjusts accordingly.
The attack surface risk management capability has identified several vulnerability issues in external assets, necessitating immediate action. It has also shed light on blind spots within our environment.
When we identify blind spots, we need to implement measures to address them and mitigate, reduce, or even eliminate the associated risk from our environment. Our team is relatively small, so dedicating someone to focus intensively on a single issue can be challenging. Vision One has alleviated this burden. Vision One's playbook and built-in automation features help us by proactively alerting us to issues requiring immediate attention, enhancing our overall security posture.
Vision One offers a feature where, if it detects a phishing email with high confidence, it automatically locks the email, removes it from the Exchange database, quarantines it, and disables any links within the email or similar emails. For emails requiring human intervention or immediate action, Vision One flags them for review. We can then approve or deny the actions on the URLs and emails within the system. We use Vision One as a secondary measure if something slips through our other security layers. It allows us to see exactly what happens when users click on a malicious link, even if it wasn't flagged beforehand.
To some extent, Vision One helps us reduce the time we spend investigating false positive alerts generated by our firewalls. While firewalls throw out many alerts, I often turn to Vision One for clients flagged as compromised. Jumping over the firewall report, I check Vision One's insights on those specific endpoints and the sites flagged by the firewall. Previously, I'd spend time on the machine itself, sifting through cookies and deleting temporary files to track the source of the suspicious traffic. But with Vision One, I can quickly see if the endpoint is trying to reach those flagged endpoints. In most cases, it turns out to be just Google searches – images or other elements loading as part of a search.
Vision One has become my go-to spot every morning because of the dashboards. They put everything I needed in one place, saving me the hassle of jumping between multiple platforms. It's a half-hour ritual that sets me up for success, allowing me to review everything efficiently and tackle the rest of my day with confidence. Vision One has probably saved me several hours of valuable time per day.
We currently have some playbooks in place, and we're exploring the option of adding more automation features to them. Our limited IT support staff is one factor that makes a managed XDR solution particularly appealing. However, we recognize the need to invest time in learning and understanding the available automation features, of which there are many.
I could visit VisionOne daily and check the operations dashboard. It provides a good high-level overview of our risk posture, and I can drill down to see the specific registrations from the endpoint network that VisionOne is highlighting. This helped us understand that our risk index recently increased due to users requiring patches for the latest Google Chrome bug. Beyond that, VisionOne offers a clear window into the security posture of our endpoints. It shows any existing vulnerabilities and, if applicable, highlights any available tools from Trend Micro that can help us reduce the risk and mitigate the issues.
The support documentation could be more comprehensive. The last time I needed to find information, it was scattered, and took me a long time to locate what I needed.
I have been using Trend Vision One for almost six years.
While all products can encounter occasional stability issues, we've had specific instances where Trend Micro caused problems. We were unable to pinpoint the exact cause ourselves. Therefore, we contacted Trend Micro's technical support and collaborated with them to resolve the issue. In one case, it was a bug or previously unknown problem that was fixed in the next release.
Vision One is fairly scalable, especially the cloud model. Because as long as we have the licenses installed. They can create folders and groups to help keep things organized for us.
The technical support team is always incredibly helpful. Whenever we call them, they typically recommend using their data collection tool to gather some information. However, they're quick to respond, easy to work with, and knowledgeable, making for great customer service.
Previously, we used Kaspersky for several years after Symantec's exorbitant pricing led us to switch. We hadn't considered Trend Micro at the time. When concerns about Kaspersky arose due to the geopolitical situation, our director decided to move away from it. Seeking an alternative that was lightweight and met our needs, we explored various vendors and ultimately settled on Trend Micro.
The initial deployment was straightforward. Trend Micro sent one of their engineers from Toronto to Halifax to help us set up the point-of-sale system for the proof-of-concept trial. The beauty of their approach was that if we decided to move forward with Trend Micro after the POC, we only needed to apply the license to the existing model, and it could be seamlessly transitioned into production. The engineer worked closely with us to develop a script that would uninstall Kaspersky and install the Trend Micro product. They also helped us configure the necessary policies, making the entire process remarkably simple.
Three people were involved in the deployment including the engineer from Trend Micro.
The implementation was completed in-house with the help of a Trend Micro engineer.
Initially, the new pricing structure from Trend Micro seemed reasonable compared to what we'd seen before. They've introduced a credit system, where we purchase credits and then allocate them to the specific services we need active. This concept is intriguing, but it has its pros and cons. In the past, licensing for 700 clients meant purchasing 700 licenses for everything in the package, a straightforward approach. Now, the new system requires a sizing exercise to determine our actual needs. However, the upside is that unused credits don't go to waste. We can divert some to a sandbox environment or other Trend Micro service for a limited time, if needed, to address specific issues.
Each feature costs a certain amount of credits.
I would rate Trend Vision One a nine out of ten.
The on-premises version requires maintenance on the management server and update the software. The cloud model reduces the amount of time spent on maintenance dramatically because the cloud model automatically takes care of the software maintenance side of Trend Micro.