An organization has a virtualized environment that is utilized by a group of Developers for...

In virtualized environments, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) offersShared Insight Cache (SIC)as a feature to improve performance by reducing redundant scanning.

Shared Insight Cache Functionality:

SIC allows SEP clients in a virtual environment to share scan results. Once a file is scanned and deemed safe, that result is cached and shared across other SEP clients, preventing duplicate scans of the same file on different virtual machines (VMs).

This caching mechanism is especially beneficial in environments where multiple VMs frequently use identical files, such as software libraries or system files.

Optimized Performance:

By reducing repetitive scanning, SIC minimizes CPU and disk usage, allowing virtualized environments to maintain performance even during scheduled scans.

This approach is ideal for development and testing environments, where VM efficiency is crucial for productivity.

Why Other Options Are Less Suitable:

Disabling ELAM or adjusting Auto-Protect settings may reduce security or have limited impact on overall performance in a virtualized environment.

Randomizing scheduled scans could help distribute resource load but does not prevent redundant scans across VMs.

References: The Shared Insight Cache is specifically designed to optimize SEP’s performance in virtualized setups, as described in SEP’s best practices for virtual environments​.