Trend Micro Forgets the Basics

Antivirus software vendor Trend Micro over the weekend made a huge blunder when it published an update of its software that was incompatible with Windows XP SP2. The update was downloaded to thousands of Windows PCs, which promptly crashed or slowed to a crawl, forcing hundreds of IT people to come in on the weekend to fix the problem.

The update was available only for about 90 minutes, affecting mostly users in Japan, and a repaired version has been made available. But it will take a long time for Trend Micro to recover from the embarrassment of issuing a faulty release, especially just two months after the company conceded that a flaw in its antivirus apps could be exploited to help spread an infection.

The moral of Trend Micro's story is simple: you've got to test, test, test. Whether you are a software vendor or an IT department distributing software to users, your business depends on getting it to work right the first time. If you don't have the test environment you need, you should look to software packaging and testing tool vendors, such as Altiris' Wise subsidiary, to help with staged trials of your applications. This sort of testing isn't a luxury -- it's a business necessity.