Bitdefender GravityZone vs Kaspersky Endpoint Security India 2026 — Migration Guide

If your organisation is running Kaspersky Endpoint Security and you're evaluating whether to replace it — you're not alone. Thousands of Indian businesses, IT teams, and government-linked organisations are in the same position following a series of advisory notices from cybersecurity authorities globally.

Bitdefender GravityZone is the most commonly recommended Kaspersky replacement by cybersecurity professionals worldwide, including in India. This guide covers the comparison, the migration process, and how to make the switch with zero gap in endpoint protection.

Why Organisations Are Replacing Kaspersky

In June 2024, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a final rule prohibiting the use of Kaspersky software by US persons and organisations, citing national security concerns related to Kaspersky Lab's Russian government connections. The UK's NCSC, Germany's BSI, and several other national agencies have issued similar advisories.

In India, while there is no formal government ban on Kaspersky, the following situations are driving replacements:

Compliance requirements: Indian subsidiaries of US, UK, EU, or Australian multinational companies must comply with their parent company's security policies — which now commonly prohibit Kaspersky.

Client-driven requirements: IT service providers, software companies, and business process outsourcing firms increasingly receive client security questionnaires asking about endpoint security vendor nationality.

Government and defence-adjacent organisations: Organisations with any connection to central government, state government, PSUs, or defence supply chains are moving to Indian or Western vendors as a matter of risk management.

Cyber insurance: Several cyber insurance providers now ask specifically about Kaspersky usage in their underwriting questionnaires, with some policies excluding coverage for Kaspersky-protected endpoints.

Proactive risk management: Many IT teams and CISOs are replacing Kaspersky not because of a specific directive, but as a precautionary risk management decision.

Kaspersky vs Bitdefender GravityZone — Feature Comparison

Both products are technically strong. This comparison focuses on the factors most relevant to Indian buyers in 2026.

Protection Quality

Verdict: Protection quality is equivalent at the top tier. Both products consistently achieve maximum scores in independent lab tests. This means you do not sacrifice any protection quality by switching from Kaspersky to Bitdefender.

Key Technical Differentiators

Unique Bitdefender advantage: Hypervisor Introspection (HVI) in GravityZone Elite — a technology that monitors virtual machine memory from the hypervisor layer. No other vendor, including Kaspersky, offers this natively.

Management Console Comparison

Both consoles are powerful. Kaspersky Security Center is known for deep configurability — useful for large IT teams with Kaspersky expertise. GravityZone Cloud has a cleaner, more modern interface that is generally faster to learn and operate. For organisations replacing Kaspersky without specialist Kaspersky expertise, GravityZone's simpler onboarding is an advantage.

Pricing in India — 2026

Key insight: Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security Premium (with full EDR) is priced similarly to or below Kaspersky Endpoint Security Select — while offering equivalent or superior protection quality. The Kaspersky replacement does not require a budget increase.

Migration Process — Kaspersky to Bitdefender GravityZone

Migrating from Kaspersky to Bitdefender requires careful sequencing to avoid a protection gap. Cloudfy Systems handles this migration as part of the GravityZone purchase.

Phase 1 — Pre-Migration Audit

Before touching any endpoint:

1. Export your current Kaspersky policy configuration (exclusions, trusted zones, application rules, device control policies)
2. Document all Kaspersky exclusions — these will need to be recreated in GravityZone
3. Identify any Kaspersky-specific integrations (SIEM connectors, Kaspersky Security Center API connections)
4. Inventory all endpoints — OS version, current Kaspersky agent version, and whether they are cloud or on-premise managed

Phase 2 — GravityZone Provisioning

1. Provision GravityZone Cloud console
2. Create policy groups mirroring your Kaspersky policy structure
3. Configure exclusions, trusted applications, and device control rules in GravityZone
4. Prepare the GravityZone deployment package (EXE or MSI installer pre-configured with GZC connectivity)

Phase 3 — Pilot Deployment (10% of estate)

1. Select a pilot group of 5–15 machines (mix of workstations, laptops, and if applicable, servers)
2. Deploy GravityZone agent alongside Kaspersky in a co-existence mode for 72 hours — monitoring for conflicts
3. Important: Kaspersky and Bitdefender cannot run in full active protection mode simultaneously. The typical approach is to set Kaspersky to "passive mode" (definitions updates only, no active scanning) while GravityZone runs active protection during the pilot
4. Verify all pilot machines report to GZC correctly
5. Review GravityZone scan results — any threats Kaspersky had flagged should appear

Phase 4 — Full Rollout

Proceed in batches (typically 20–25% of the estate per day):

1. For each batch: push GravityZone agent silently via GZC's built-in push mechanism (domain-joined machines) or software deployment tool
2. Once GravityZone agent confirms active protection, uninstall Kaspersky via GZC task (remote uninstall) or via Active Directory/SCCM
3. Verify batch completion — all machines in the batch showing green in GZC dashboard
4. Move to next batch

Do not: Uninstall Kaspersky from a batch before confirming GravityZone is active on each machine in that batch. Protection gaps are the primary risk in any migration.

Phase 5 — Decommission Kaspersky Infrastructure

1. Disconnect Kaspersky Security Center from the endpoint estate
2. If using Kaspersky Security Center Cloud — close or suspend the account
3. Remove Kaspersky Security Center administration console if on-premise
4. Remove Kaspersky agents from any remaining stragglers (machines that were offline during migration)
5. Final audit — confirm 100% of endpoints are GravityZone-managed

Timeline

What Happens to Existing Kaspersky Licences?

If you have a multi-year Kaspersky licence, migrating before it expires means you forfeit the remaining licence value. In our experience, most organisations factor this into the migration cost and still proceed — the risk-reduction value justifies it.

If you are mid-contract and the licence cost is material, options include:

• Negotiate an early exit with your Kaspersky reseller
• Migrate now and run the Kaspersky licence to zero while using GravityZone as the active protection layer (passive Kaspersky, active GravityZone)
• Contact Cloudfy — in some cases we can assist with licence transition negotiations

Keeping the Same Protection Level — Feature Mapping

Notable gap: Bitdefender GravityZone does not include native full disk encryption in the same way Kaspersky does. If full disk encryption is required, BitLocker (Windows built-in) is the standard complementary solution — GravityZone integrates with BitLocker management via the console.

Bitdefender GravityZone — The Right Kaspersky Replacement Plan

For most Kaspersky migrations, GravityZone Business Security Premium is the right starting point:

• Matches or exceeds Kaspersky Endpoint Security Select in protection quality
• Adds EDR (which many Kaspersky deployments lacked without the EDR add-on)
• Cleaner management console for teams familiar with Kaspersky Security Center
• Priced similarly to or below Kaspersky

For VMware/Hyper-V environments, consider GravityZone Elite — Hypervisor Introspection (HVI) provides a level of VM protection that Kaspersky cannot match.

FAQ — Kaspersky Replacement India

Is Kaspersky banned in India? There is no formal government ban on Kaspersky in India as of June 2026. However, CERT-In has not issued endorsement of Kaspersky, and various regulatory and compliance drivers are causing Indian organisations to migrate proactively. US-listed companies, subsidiaries of foreign companies, and defence-adjacent vendors face the strongest pressure to replace Kaspersky.

Will Kaspersky continue to work if I don't migrate? Kaspersky software continues to function technically. The concern is not about the software stopping — it is about geopolitical risk, regulatory compliance for certain sectors, and the professional liability of IT decision-makers who choose to continue with a product that major cybersecurity authorities have cautioned against.

How quickly can we complete the Kaspersky to Bitdefender migration? For a 50-endpoint environment, Cloudfy can complete the full migration in 2–3 business days. Contact us as early as possible — we prioritise Kaspersky replacement migrations.

Does Bitdefender support the same Windows versions as Kaspersky? Bitdefender GravityZone supports Windows 7/8.1/10/11, Windows Server 2008 R2 and above, macOS 10.13 and above, and major Linux distributions. Coverage is very similar to Kaspersky's Windows platform support.

Can I get a Bitdefender trial to test before migrating? Yes. Cloudfy provides a 30-day assisted GravityZone trial — we set up the console and deploy agents on a pilot group alongside your existing Kaspersky deployment so you can evaluate it in your own environment before committing.

Ready to migrate from Kaspersky to Bitdefender? Contact Cloudfy Systems — Bitdefender Silver Partner in India.

→ View Bitdefender GravityZone product page → Bitdefender GravityZone Pricing India 2026 → Bitdefender Reseller Partner India