TechRadar Verdict
Avast CloudCare will give you complete control over both security threats and productivity-damaging content while making your job feel as seamless as possible.
Pros
- +
Strong security
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Easy deployment
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Responsive content access management
Cons
- -
Sporadic slowdowns
- -
Visually complex
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A household name in the world of cybersecurity, Avast has targeted the business segment of its target audience with a cloud-based content filtering platform called CloudCare. The primary audience are small to medium-sized businesses as well as security service providers that need to manage security for their customers. Apart from content filtering, CloudCare packs an advanced antivirus security engine as well as email encryption and spam protection features combined with data loss protection in the form of a pay-as-you-go cloud backup service.
Yet, having a brand and a list of shiny features will not get the job done by itself which is why we need to determine if Avast CloudCare is actually worth your care and money.
Security features
As expected, the heart of Avast’s CloudCare package beats in the rhythm of an enterprise-grade managed Antivirus Pro Plus. It is accessed from the central CloudCare interface, allowing you to secure individual users and devices, data, and groups from various cyberthreats.
In addition to antivirus capabilities, CloudCare wants to give you a full-blown URL filtering system under the moniker of the Content Filtering feature. Its goal is to help you maintain and increase the level of productivity by restricting access to websites you deem unworthy of your employees’ attention. This refers both to the malicious websites that pose a security risk and the sites that serve as a source of distraction during the working hours, such as entertainment or e-commerce sites.
To make this process smoother, CloudCare will help you manage security and control strictness levels via a CloudCare agent. This is best done by customizing appropriate access policies that are applied to all devices on which an agent is installed in real-time.
If you do not want to customize these from the outset, you can give the factory-set policies a try since they are enforced based on predefined categories that are regularly expanded. This is done by having CloudCare constantly scan the web search results and evaluate them for your safety.
This has three important advantages. First, you do not have to worry about maintaining security levels on each individual device. Next, you get to scale your security easier in line with the expanding number of devices you need to provide security for. Finally, you get to save precious bandwidth resources by keeping a flexible but firm level of control with a dedicated URL filtering system.
Another attractive selling point for CloudCare is the ability to secure connections to all managed devices at your disposal. Provided support tool allows you to remotely manage all security issues from a single place at all times.
Avast CloudCare has two secure gateways: Secure Web Gateway and Secure Internet Gateway. Secure Web Gateway will block access to dangerous websites, downloads, and locations before they even reach your network in order to minimize exposure to security risks.
The coverage includes email anti-spam, encrypted email, and email archive features that allow you to cut down on spam and malicious emails.
Secure Web Gateway is capable of AI-powered learning in real-time, relying on Avast’s threat networks that supply it with data. If access to a harmful URL is attempted through a gateway, the URL and the site in question will be checked for threats and classified into a safe or an unsafe category.
Usability
Despite staying simple to implement and manage, Avast CloudCare delivers strong security to MSPs and their customers while allowing them to reduce overhead costs at the same time.
Aiming to go ahead of the curve as an all-inclusive next-generation endpoint security solution for small to mid-sized businesses and cloud-based network security overall, Avast CloudCare encompasses every essential layer of security vital for safeguarding a business from cyber threats.
Since your customers’ networks won’t manage themselves, you’ll have to get your hands dirty. Fortunately, managing multiple networks with Avast CloudCare feels like child's play, which is one of its main assets. With a one-stop solution for monitoring and managing all aspects of cybersecurity, it’s surprisingly simple to maintain rapport and security for your customers.
Also, since everything you’ll need from threat monitoring to remote control exists on the same platform you’ll have extra time to invest in boosting your business.
Another noteworthy user-friendly feature of Avast CloudCare is its scalability, meaning it can seamlessly scale with your business allowing you to add additional security services remotely and with ease. Thanks to this you’ll be able to keep up with your customers' needs as times, trends, and technologies change, and proactively fill any security gaps. By allowing you to use your resources effectively, Avast CloudCare cuts back on-site client visits and saves you both time and money.
Management Features
Deploying, configuring, and maintaining a whole variety of security services to safeguard customers’ data, endpoints, apps, and networks from all sorts of cyber threats is made simple thanks to Avast’s user-centered approach.
Avast CloudCare utilizes a single dashboard for monitoring all cyber-threats. From there you can configure alerts in accordance with specific device actions and monitor them from a centralized alert area to get full insight into individual device issues and threats that could be spreading between connected devices.
Even at first glance, Avast CloudCare’s dashboard appears impressively intuitive and offers enough information necessary for making informed decisions. As expected, the alert area is pretty prominent to make sure you don’t miss any security updates.
With a single click, you can install your next-generation Avast antivirus across multiple offices and devices and manage it from a “smart” dashboard. It lets you watch over everything while it resolves issues automatically, keeps security software up to date, schedules system scans, and notifies you about approved patches to ensure close to perfect protection.
Although most businesses acknowledge the importance of patching and proper patch management, many play it down to avoid having to tackle too many patches that can interrupt operations and cause conflict with certain systems. Luckily, this is hardly a worry with Avast CloudCare since you can select the frequency of the patch scan (daily, weekly, or monthly) and schedule the exact time when you want the scan to occur.
You can opt between deploying patches automatically or manually by approvals, as well as exclude any patches you wish to avoid. Avast CloudCare’s dashboard will also walk you through patches you might have missed, along with their severity levels, release dates, additional notes, and so forth.
Pricing
Now, this is where Avast stops to shine as bright as before. While the concept of free trial is nothing new nowadays, it’s great to have one nevertheless, particularly if it’s also backed by a money-back guarantee. With Avast you can request a free trial for Avast CloudCare, but to get a 30-day money-back guarantee you’ll have to purchase one of Avast’s all-inclusive cybersecurity solutions which can cost you from $36.99 to $139.99 per year. Unfortunately, there’s no pricing information about Avast CloudCare specifically.
To find out more, you’ll have to submit a request for a quote and wait for Avast’s representatives to get in touch with you or request the free trial right away.
Our Verdict
If you rank URL filtering high among your strategies for protecting your networks and their users from cyber threats, undesirable internet content, and sites that promote procrastination, Avast CloudCare might be just the thing for you. It will give you complete control over both security threats and productivity-damaging content while making your job feel as seamless as possible. The interface may look a bit complex for first-time users, but it’s very well-designed and they’ll get used to it in no time.
