Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Antivirus Software Company Invests in the Future with 64-Bit Development
Overview
Country or Region:Russia
Industry:Professional Services
Customer Profile
Kaspersky Lab, based in Moscow, Russia, is a leading provider of secure content management solutions to enterprises and home users. Kaspersky Lab has more than 500 employees in 11 countries worldwide.
Business Situation
The company’s position in the industry’s vanguard depends on its ability to anticipate shifts in technology that affect its customers’ security needs.
Solution
To prepare for the future, Kaspersky Lab is developing editions of its security software products that are compatible with Windows® 64-bit operating systems.
Benefits
Greater flexibility
Familiar software
Future-ready platform
Competitive advantage / “Eventually, many of our customers—corporate and personal—will migrate to the Windows 64-bit platform. Our goal is to have compatible products ready for them.”
Alexey Kalgin, Deputy Product Director, Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab provides secure content management solutions and services to large, midsize, and small companies as well as home users. Kaspersky Lab received the Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner status for Security Solutions in 2003. Recognizing that 64-bit computing will soon be widely adopted by IT organizations, the company began porting its products to Windows® XP 64-Bit Edition and Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 x64 Edition. This move assures customers that their data will remain secure when they make the move to 64-bit, and lays the groundwork for Kaspersky to develop products compatible with Windows Vista™.
Situation
Kaspersky Lab is an international vendor of secure content management solutions based in Moscow. Founded in 1997, Kaspersky Lab develops, produces, and distributes secure content management solutions that protect important data against viruses, hacker attacks, and spam. The company, whose customers include business and home users, also offers consulting services and technical support. Kaspersky Lab has more than 500 employees at offices in Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Japan, China, South Korea and the United States. The company’s partner network comprises more than 500 companies around the world.
“Our internal IT environment currently consists of Windows® XP Professional Edition, Microsoft® Windows 2000 Server, and Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 R2,” says Alexey Kalgin, Deputy Product Director at Kaspersky Lab. “Naturally, we rely on our own security solutions to protect our internal network.”
Kaspersky Lab prides itself on being in the vanguard of antivirus research and development. In 2003, it received the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status for Security Solutions. An important aspect of the company’s role is to be aware of new trends in technology that will impact its customers’ IT environments. Kaspersky Lab must ensure that security solutions are readily available to meet changing needs.
One recent trend is the growing adoption of 64-bit computing “Eventually, many of our customers—corporate and personal—will migrate to the Windows 64-bit platform,” says Kalgin. “Our goal is to have compatible products ready for them.”
Solution
In 2005, Kaspersky Lab began porting its product line to the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition and Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 x64 Edition operating systems. Kaspersky Lab developers used the Microsoft Visual Studio® version 6.0 development system with Service Pack 5 to update its software. They reported that the process was fairly smooth with no unexpected challenges.
Benefits
The first 64-bit product of Kaspersky Lab, Anti-Virus 5.0 for Windows File Server, was released in the last quarter of 2005. Editions of Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows File Server that emerge in the next few months will come bundled into 32-bit and 64-bit versions. This new direction for the company provides many benefits for Kaspersky Lab and its customers.
Greater Flexibility
By making its products available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Kaspersky Lab provides its customers with greater flexibility in deploying security solutions on their networks.
Familiar Software
The release of Kaspersky Lab software in 64-bit–compatible editions assures its customers that their data will continue to have the same level of protection as they begin to take advantage of the faster performance and more robust data processing capabilities of 64-bit Windows computing.
Future-Ready Platform
By porting its products to Windows 64-bit operating system now, Kaspersky Lab ensures that its software will remain compatible with a platform that will likely be in place for years. Kaspersky Lab also reports that its move to 64-bit is part of a larger operating environment strategy that includes getting ready for the upcoming release of Windows Vista™.
Competitive Advantage
By supporting 64-bit technology in its products, Kaspersky Lab remains ahead of other companies in the security sphere. “Our competitors took longer to release their 64-bit products to the market. This move gave us a strong competitive advantage,” says Kalgin.
The company recently released Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 and Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 with 64-bit support, and will support 64-bit technology in Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows File Server 6.0.
“In the security field, you generally hear from customers when something isn’t working properly,” says Kalgin. “We’ve had no negative feedback from our customers who’ve installed the Windows 64-bit versions of our products; so even though this is a very new implementation, we consider our entry into 64-bit computing to be a good investment.”
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System is a line of integrated and manageable server software designed to reduce the complexity and cost of IT. Windows Server System enables you to spend less time and budget on managing your systems so that you can focus your resources on other priorities for you and your business.
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