Alabama's Chamber County Evaluates Anti-Virus Options

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/28/09

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Following an evaluation of multiple anti-virus programs, the Chambers County School District in Alabama has renewed its license for AVG Anti-Virus. The district cited ease of use as a driver in making the choice.

"To keep our network at the cutting edge, we needed to be sure AVG was keeping its edge as well," said William Groover, the district's technology director. "So, we put it through its paces alongside Computer Associates, McAfee, Trend Micro, and Symantec.... AVG wasn't the cheapest solution, nor was it the most expensive, but the combination of the overall performance, strength, value for money, and ease of use proved that it was still the best anti-virus product for our school system," he concluded.

One aspect about the other products that concerned Groover was the tendency towards incomprehensible and/or misplaced error messages. "AVG software tells you when there is something wrong, and you can trust that when it raises a flag, there is something that needs to be looked at," he said. "AVG doesn't give you error messages that are unwarranted, unlike other anti-virus products."

Groover also cited the simplicity of AVG's network management capabilities. "AVG's ease of management is a huge plus for us. It is such a benefit to be able to selectively target which workstations AVG will be pushed out to and then do so from one centralized location," he said.

Groover's IT team manages 1,400 workstations and 68 servers that serve the district's 450 faculty and staff members and 4,200 students.

The district renewed its license through AVG distributor Walling Data. "Last time we renewed our subscription, we went with an overseas vendor," said Groover. "But this time I was less than impressed. I placed several calls to their offices and never got a response. There was clearly little point in continuing to work with them, so I decided to look for another experienced AVG distributor."

Groover and his team are currently deploying an AVG upgrade across their networks.

"We had some initial questions about setting up the software and rolling it out, but after talking to the Walling support team, everything is moving along just fine," said Groover. "We like the new version--and our new supplier--a whole lot better."