Recent innovations in malware forms and attacks have shown these new attack forms to be increasingly more sophisticated and dangerous to enterprise security. They combine multiple attack vectors and are launched with precision in terms of their targets and objectives. The result is that endpoint protection with traditional forms of antivirus solutions alone is proving to be insufficient.

Over the past few years, IDC has identified a trend toward enterprise adoption of integrated layered endpoint security solutions. While several types of these solutions are available on the market, two additional critical success factors need to be considered when evaluating security solutions: depth of experience in the security solutions marketplace and breadth of experience in understanding IT’s needs in a constantly changing threat environment.

Thus, the most appropriate solutions are those that incorporate a layered approach with a highly integrated security management platform, supported by extensive vendor security solution experience and expertise. These solutions must also recognize that enterprise IT is charged with protecting endpoint systems, securing data, managing risk, ensuring compliance, and making safe and secure systems available to the enterprise. To be optimally effective, solutions must secure the network and its endpoints with state-of-the-art software capabilities. The business benefits of having a comprehensive and effective endpoint solution are:

• Stronger security
• Cost savings from less frequent and less urgent patching
• Integrated and centralized endpoint security management

This white paper provides further insights into how host intrusion prevention systems (Host IPS), as part of a layered endpoint security solution, deliver business value to enterprises by providing protection against zero-day threats to enable IT with sufficient time to test and deploy patches and realize IT operational cost savings via centrally managed security and visibility of all endpoint security layers through a single console.