Symantec Introduces New Endpoint Security and Systems Management Bundle

| Jun 25, 2008 | Enterprise Security | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Andrew Braunberg

Current Perspective: Positive/Neutral
Vendor Importance: Moderate
Market Impact: Moderate

Event Summary

June 23, 2008 – Symantec has announced the release of the new Symantec Endpoint Management Suite to define the next generation of integrated, best-of-breed systems management, endpoint security and backup and recovery. This first release of Endpoint Management Suite immediately delivers market-leading endpoint control and is built on the Symantec Open Collaborative Architecture to help protect a customer’s investment by providing the ability to rapidly address future endpoint requirements.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on Symantec’s release of its new integrated Endpoint Management Suite, which pulls together its existing Altiris Client Management Suite, Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery products under a central management console. The combined solution provides the key elements of Symantec’s endpoint strategy (management, security and recovery), but technical details on the level of integration are lacking.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Symantec, because by bundling some of the company’s flagship endpoint products the company has further demonstrated the strategic benefits of the acquisition of Altiris in early 2007. The new Symantec Endpoint Management Suite leverages Altiris’ service oriented architecture and its configuration management database and provides the foundation for Symantec’s Open Collaborative Architecture, which is designed to enable faster and more flexible bundling of Symantec, and even third-party, products. Again, however, details are sketchy and the current level of product integration is not clear.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the security market, because regardless of the actual depth of this particular integration, the announcement emphasizes two important market trends: the continuing merging of systems and security management, and the need for suite vendors to develop frameworks that allow for the integration of third party products that can be centrally managed.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Microsoft should position this as a “me too” announcement and note that it released Forefront Client Security and Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 more than a year ago (see Microsoft Announces Integrated Client Security Solution, May 7, 2007). Microsoft has made a point not to compete on security expertise alone and should continue to emphasize its ability to bake security management into its broader systems management solutions.

• McAfee, of course, has famously been down this road before and was burned badly back in the 90s when it acquired Saber Software and decided it was going to bring together systems and security management. It is doubtful that McAfee wants to acquire systems management technology again but the company has shown that it will, when necessary, re-enter markets it had previously exited (e.g., encryption). A more likely scenario would see McAfee be acquired by a larger systems, network or storage management company. Potential suitors include CA, EMC and Novell.

• Smaller vendors without the resources for these integrated offerings should shift the story to the cloud. The argument should be that customers do not need more functionality on the endpoint, they need less. Threat management on the endpoint should be handled by lightweight agents with most of the functionality delivered through a SaaS model.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Existing Symantec endpoint security, client management, and client recovery customers should be pleased with this announcement. These customers will be able to bundle complementary functionality and to manage that functionality through a centralized management console more easily.

• SMBs should be aggressive in looking for bundled pricing schedules from Symantec. Large enterprise customers that are not currently using Altiris Client Management Suite are not likely to rip and replace at this point to add it. SMBs, which are less likely to have systems management products in place are a more likely target audience for this suite and should look for attractive pricing.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Enterprise Security | More information

Top