Software Evaluation

I was recently tasked to lead the evaluation of a software which my team is intending of recommending for use in XXX because we are going to BAN THUMBDRIVES in the organisation. Yeap, you read it right.. banning of thumdrives.

You might then be thinking : "How the hell would we transfer our files around from 1 network to the other?" There will be a 'Clearing-House' in place and you are supposed to submit your files to this house who will then transfer your files to your desired network where you will then copy those submitted files from. Don't worry if it sounds complicated for this is not the main topic of my blog entry today...

With the transfer mechanism in place, the next question would be : "How do you ensure users do not plug in authorised devices into their machines?"

This is what my blog entry's gonna be talking about today....

This software which I've been evaluating for the past 2wks is capable of blocking computer ports, files, storage-media and other recognisable-devices on the PC as defined by rules set by us. I've been tasked to evaluate software in the past but I've never really learnt the trade of proper software evaluation until now. Gary guided me along in this project and I learnt a great deal from this exercise. He taught me to try out every single function offered by the software, test out all possible scenarios which might occur in our environment, find answers to question which the management may ask, etc.....

In the process of doing so, I compiled a list of some 20 questions which was sent to the software vendor for them to help us answer (of course). When the product consultant came down for the 2nd time on Friday, we bombarded him with those compiled questions + new ones. He was able to addressed some 50% of them but had to escalate to higher support for the rest. I supposed he got pretty stressed up because he mentioned a few times that none of his other customerstested the product so extensively and in-depth. It feels as if like we've helping him to debug his product and all....

Once he revert with the other 50%, I feel confident enough to present to the others who should be presented to.

Thanks to Gary for guiding me in this evaluation..............