What Is Cloud Antivirus?

For users, cloud antivirus offers a very similar experience to any other type of antivirus. With cloud antivirus, threat definitions are stored in the cloud rather than locally on your device. But what does this mean for users?

As threat definitions are stored in the cloud, there is less demand on the device you are using. Less processing power is used and there are fewer files clogging up your hard drive.

Furthermore, updates to cloud antivirus can be pushed to devices remotely. If a new threat is found, an update can be pushed instantly to protect the devices using the antivirus. Cloud antivirus offers the ultimate protection because the protection does not rely on the user of the device manually installing an update.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud Antivirus?

Alongside the unmistakable benefit of not having to store millions of threat definitions locally, what are the other benefits of cloud antivirus?

Reduce Reliance on Users

Traditional antivirus relies on users in numerous ways. For example, it relies upon the user to update it every time an update is pushed by the developers. If the user does not immediately download the update, which isn’t always possible, your business could be at risk. With cloud-based antivirus, this is not a problem.

As soon as a new threat is discovered, threat definitions are added in the cloud automatically with no input from the users. Each instance of the antivirus is connected to a server in the cloud, so virus scanning and updates can be done automatically. With cloud antivirus, there is no reliance at all on the users. This means your business always has the best protection available at any given time.

Access to A Large, Ever-Expanding Threat Database

New threats to your business are created every day, while known threats continue to evolve. This means the threat database is ever-expanding. To have all this data stored on a single computer would render the machine inoperable when a virus scan was in progress. Fortunately, this isn’t a problem with cloud antivirus as the massive database of threats is stored in the cloud and scans run automatically in the background.

Definition updates reach the client software in mere minutes, so the endpoint is protected against threats as comprehensively as possible. As soon as a new threat is discovered, the computer is protected with a small definition update pushed in the background.

No Waiting on Updates

Have you ever had to wait while your antivirus updates on your computer? With traditional antivirus software, updates can take hours to install depending on the size of the update. While the antivirus is updating, you’re actually exposed to threats too!

All updates are pushed to a server with cloud-based antivirus software. There’s no need to download new software on your computer because updates in the cloud are reflected in the software client installed on your device.