Endpoint Protector 4 from CoSoSys provides endpoint protection through the use of three feature-rich modules. These include Device Control for endpoints, Content Aware Protection for endpoints, and Mobile Device Management. Device Control allows administrators to control what types of devices may be connected to machines on the network. These include USB devices and flash drives, external hard drives and printers, as well as many other devices. Content Aware Protection is a data leakage prevention module that lets administrators define policy to prevent sensitive data from leaving the network through removable media or from being uploaded to the cloud, among other methods. Finally, Mobile Device Management allows for full control over mobile devices, such as iPhones and Android units. With Mobile Device Management, administrators can enforce security policy, as well as locate lost or stolen devices, and control which apps can be installed.
The offering comes as a hardware or virtual appliance that can be deployed in just a few minutes. Our initial configuration was done simply by connecting the device to the network and navigating to the web-based management interface, which began the easy-to-follow setup wizard. After the wizard was complete, a base configuration was in place and we could begin finetuning the appliance with more granular policy controls. We found the management interface to be well-organized and intuitive to navigate with many policy and configuration options.
From the endpoint management settings through content protection and mobile device management, this product features a ton of configurable policy options. We found policy configurations to be easy to put together, and we could create policies based on certain users and groups in various departments throughout the organization, which provides the granularity needed to deploy endpoint security in almost any organization's environment. Device Control can manage Windows, Mac OS X and Linux machines, while Content Aware Protection is available for Windows and Mac OS X. Mobile Device Management can manage both Mac and Android devices.
Documentation included user manuals for the appliance and the management interface, as well as a few other supplemental PDFs for configuration of specific components. We found the documentation to be well-organized and to include many detailed descriptions, configuration examples and screen shots, but it did not include step-by-step procedures on how to actually configure the appliance.
CoSoSys offers basic eight-hours-a-day/five-days-a-week phone- and email-based support to customers at no additional cost. However, customers can also purchase additional aid through annual contracts. This includes access to product updates, as well as technical assistance.
With a price starting at $8,250 for the appliance (with just the Device Control module), and up to $14,850 for the appliance, Device Control and Content Aware Protection, plus an additional $35 per device per year for Mobile Device Management, this product can become quite pricey fast. However, we found it to be a good value for the money based on its large feature set and ease of use and configuration.
