The company advised that SMBs who qualify under its “Freemium” model, which provides free patch and asset scanning and remediation for one machine, can now take advantage of Shavlik’s Security Advisor product free of charge. This includes one free user license that can extend to approximately 10 virtual machines.
It’s not the first time Shavilk has offered its security products at no cost to small businesses – the firm also provides free versions of its I.T. Shavlik cloud-based IT management software in addition to its virtual machine-based NetChk vProtect, part of the company’s patch management technology.
According to Shavlik, Security Advisor will flag potential security vulnerabilities on qualifying SMB networks, scan all associated physical and virtual machines, and determine which security patches are missing and require immediate attention.
“We are seeing an increased need for IT management technologies that help SMBs address the same challenges that the world’s largest enterprises are grappling with,” noted Mark Shavlik, CEO and founder of Shavlik Technologies. “This is especially true for security. We commonly partner with smaller companies that are concerned about network vulnerabilities, but lack a cost-effective way to identify them.”
The company’s chief executive explained that in addition to identifying missing patches, qualifying SMBs will “also gain a greater level of visibility into the number of vulnerable machines and applications in a matter of minutes. And they don’t have to pay a dime for that valuable knowledge.”
But why give away proprietary products for free? The Shavlik CEO, when questioned by Infosecurity, gave the following reply: “We believe that raising the level of awareness about security threats and providing free tools to help mitigate and manage risk is the right thing to do. It’s absolutely in our collective best interest to improve the overall level of computer security”.
Not to mention, Infosecurity notes, that a little good will now could lead to some customer relationships in the future.
SMBs who qualify can download the free versions of these security tools via the Shavlik Technologies website.