Don’t pay for separate anti-spyware, says Gartner

Gartner is warning companies not to be ripped off by vendors seeking to sell anti-spyware software as a stand-alone product.

Most security software products include anti-spyware utilities, but Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald reports in a recent blog posting that he is still hearing about companies trying to charge customers extra for anti-spyware software

“Most of the vendors in the anti-malware space understand the market dynamics and have moved to comprehensive “Endpoint Protection Platforms” where the vendors provide us a platform for multiple styles of protection to pick and choose from – firewalling, antivirus, antispyware, host-based intrusion prevention, application control, device control and so on,” he writes.

“There is no sustainable market for standalone antispyware and no reason you should be paying separately for it.”

He says that the market for such software used to exist but the idea of a standalone package is unnecessary given that spyware protections are built into most security code. He suggests changing supplier if a company tries to charge extra.

Microsoft’s free anti-spyware tool is also a good reason not to pay, he said, with companies either having the option of installing it themselves or using the code as a bargaining chip with their suppliers.