VietNamNet Bridge – The cloud computing application
market is heating up as many giants are jumping into the Vietnamese market. Big
suppliers of security products are trying to boost the sales of cloud computing-based
anti-virus products.

The biggest
advantage of cloud computing-based anti-virus products is the ability to
increase the computer’s performance and reduce the waste of system resources
(RAM, CPU). They also help prevent malware on internet. Most of the anti-virus
products using cloud technology are “client-cloud” models which protects
clients from risks such as viruses, malware when they appear on the servers of software
suppliers, and prevents the risks to penetrate into users’ computers. Another
big advantage of cloud-technology anti-virus products is that software
suppliers always update new viruses on their servers, therefore, users do not
have to spend time loading new virus definitions onto their computers.

Big
opportunities promised for security product suppliers

Spanish Panda
Security, an anti-virus software firm using cloud computing set foot on the Vietnamese
market in May 2010 by launching a solution with Collective Intelligent
technology that automatically analyzes and classifies thousands of malware
samples every day.

Truong Minh
Yen, representative of Indochina’s Panda Security, said that there are many
anti-virus products on the Vietnamese market, but there are still few products
using cloud computing, which is a good opportunity for Panda Security.

Panda
Security now cooperates with some Vietnamese retailers like Vien Thong A, 911 Computing Network Center
and MSI Vietnam to distribute its anti-virus products. Together with the effort
to expand the distribution network, Panda Security also launches sale promotion
programs, offering the 20 percent price discount for the 2010 versions.

The Spanish firm
has marketed Panda Antivirus Pro 2011 which has the price of 110,000 dong,
Panda Internet Security 2011, 190,000 dong and Panda Global Protection 2011,
250,000 dong for one-year use. With the prices, Panda Security is considered as
the software firm that offers the lowest prices for cloud computing-based
anti-virus products.

Just two
months after Panda Security appeared on the market, Vietnamese BKAV launched BkavPro
Internet Security series using cloud computing technology. The product has a VB100
international certificate granted by Virus Bulletin. With the combination of smart
anti-virus technology and Internet access protection technology, BkavPro has
more outstanding features than the free BkavHome. For example, it kills metamorphic
viruses, toolkit, protect USB, personal firewall… The product is offered to
sell at 299,000 dong for one year use.

The biggest
advantage of BKAV is that it is a well known software brand to domestic
consumers. Besides, BKAV has a good distribution network with 305 agents
nationwide which includes well known distributors such as Phong Vu, Hoan Long,
Tran Anh and Nguyen Kim. However, BKAV’s products are less competitive than
Panda Security in terms of price.

Market will
be more active

The Vietnamese
market will not only have the two service providers, but it will have three or
more providers in the near future. Taiwanese security firm Trend Micro joined
the market in late February. Ngo Viet Khoi, Marketing Director of Trend Micro,
has affirmed that though Trend Micro is a new comer, it still has many
advantages.

“Trend Micro
began developing cloud computing five years ago, when the technology was just
at the starting point. Therefore, we have an advantage in technology, and our virus
data is also better than that of our rival,” Khoi said

He went on to
say that Trend Micro’s Titanium Maximum Security 2011 has many outstanding
features, saying that the 10GB free storage and the ability to lock files from
a distance would be the biggest competitive edges of the product.

Trend Micro
Titanium Maximum Security 2011 Vietnamese version has been on sale in Vietnam since
February 24 though retailers and Trend Micro online store. Besides, computer
users can load the software for trial use for 30 days.

Trend Micro
Titanium Maximum Security 2011 is priced at 495,000 dong per computer per year
and 990,000 dong per computer per year, nearly double the prices of BKAV or
Panda Security products.

Source: Thoi
bao Vi Tinh Saigon