GFI Software's Distressing Finds: Over Half of Small Business IT Admins are Unsure of Current Antivirus Software

By Allison Boccamazzo, TMCnet Web Editor

Would you believe that about 50 percent of IT administrators spend about three weeks or more per year manually updating their AV software or removing malware on users’ PCs? If this seems hard to believe, maybe it won’t so much anymore, as GFI Software released new research last week revealing just that. Over half (51 percent) of IT admins at small businesses would not bet their own money that all of the computers their businesses own and employees use are malware-free. Even worse, the study showed that almost 60 percent are wary that their computers are at peak efficiency and doubt they won’t fail.

Conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of GFI, the independent blind survey, which questioned 200 U.S.-based IT decision makers ranging from five to 50 employees, displayed that over half (51 percent) of IT professionals spend at least 10 hours per month manually updating antivirus software on or removing malware from users’ PCs. The survey covered everything from AV practices among small businesses to confidence levels in machine security and performance to opinions on cloud-based IT solutions.

Some stunning stats from the survey include:

• 27 percent of IT admins say they are not running the same antivirus solution with the same license renewal date on all company PCs.
• One third (33 percent) do not have a centrally managed antivirus solution.
• Nearly half (48 percent) of IT admins report that they do not have the capability to see which PCs or servers on their network are about to fail. This number increases to 55 percent or more in organizations with fewer than 25 employees.
• 78 percent of respondents say they would be interested in a Web-based service that enables them to manage antivirus protection on company PCs.
• Nearly one third (28 percent) of respondents report that none of their IT applications are delivered via the cloud yet. An additional 28 percent say less than 25 percent of their total applications are cloud-based.
• According to respondents, top concerns about moving to cloud applications include: complexity and lack of in-house skills to implement (31 percent), third-party control over company solutions (28 percent), expense to implement (24 percent) and cloud security (24 percent).

One of the greatest advantages of switching to the cloud is the drastic amount of time saved in doing so. So what would these survey respondents do with the extra time if they no longer had to waste it on manually managing antivirus software and/or identifying and repairing server failures? They expressed interest in pursuing backing up data, files, and systems; cleaning up database files, disks and servers; upgrading programs, software and hardware; developing, designing and maintaining company websites; and converting to cloud-based services.

“GFI Cloud enables small and medium-sized businesses to optimize their limited IT resources so they can focus on more strategic, business-building initiatives instead of rote, albeit essential, processes like antivirus updating and other routine and repetitive tasks,” said GFI CEO Walter Scott.

To avoid the stress and extra time and money it takes to manually check and resolve consistent server and workstation failures, invest your efforts into a reliable management solution and provider, such as GFI Software, who has just recently launched its new Web-based IT management platform, GFI Cloud. Click here to discover how GFI Cloud can best serve you.

Want to learn more about cloud communications? Then be sure to attend the Cloud Communications Expo, collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct 2-5, in Austin, TX. The Cloud Communications Expo will address the growing need of businesses to integrate and leverage cloud based communications applications, process enhancement techniques, and network based communications interfaces and architectures. For more information on registering for the Cloud Communications Expo click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at Cloud Communications Expo. Follow us on Twitter.

(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/enews/e-newsletters/cloud-communications/20120723/299720-gfi-softwares-distressing-finds-over-half-small-business.htm)