14 DAY TRIAL // Beginning next month, Microsoft plans to offer its Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) anti-malware solution for free to small businesses with up to ten computers.
Microsoft released MSE one year ago as an answer to what the company said was a very concerning number of unprotected computers.
The product was generally well received by users, software reviewers, antivirus testers and even other providers of free security solutions.
On the other hand, the more traditional (commercial) vendors like Symantec were not so enthusiastic about it and said its protection was inferior to theirs.
"When we launched Microsoft Security Essentials last year, small businesses kept telling us that it was exactly the type of thing they need at work too," said Jeff Smith, director of Marketing for Microsoft Security Essentials.
"What they really wanted from their antivirus software — inexpensive, quiet protection from a provider they can trust — were all things Microsoft Security Essentials could clearly deliver," he added.
Of course, the idea of free antivirus solutions for companies is not something new. Other vendors have considered it for quite some time, but were hold back by problems like distribution or differentiating between free and paid solutions in a business environment.
"It's something we constantly talk about, because we are a freemium company. It's pretty straight-forward on the consumer side to define free offerings and paid offerings, but on the business side it's a lot more difficult. And then, business products are still primarily distributed through big reseller networks. "Smaller businesses don't tend to have their own internal IT expertise, so they rely on local integrators. And a local integrator doesn't want to distribute a free product; a local integrator wants to make some money," Vincent Steckler, the CEO of Avast Software, told us in an interview back in July.
"With free you can't just put it out there and expect all the businesses in the world to know about it," he added. Indeed you can't; unless you're Microsoft and you already have business relationships established with most of them.
The truth of the matter is that Microsoft has very little if anything to lose by offering MSE free to small businesses, as this market sector is unfit for its enterprise-oriented Forefront commercial security solution.
In addition, this will also allow Microsoft to tap into another source of malware telemetry, 90 percent of which currently comes from home consumers running MSE.
The fact that Microsoft Security Essentials is expected to become free for small businesses in "early October," makes us wonder if the move won't coincide a final release of MSE 2.0, which has been in public beta since July. But, that's just speculation on our part.