RSA Conference 2009

Symantec Snaps up Mi5, Launches Still More Suites

| Apr 27, 2009 | Enterprise Security | Show Update

| Analyst: Paula Musich

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

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Event Summary

April 21, 2009 – Symantec at RSA launched new Protection Suite bundles for enterprise and small business that combine endpoint security, including network access control, messaging security and backup and recovery. At the same time the company announced the acquisition of Mi5 Networks, adding a line of Web security appliances to Symantec’s existing Web security software. The suites are due this summer priced at $75 per node for small business and $99 per node for enterprises.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Neutral on Symantec’s launch of new Smart Protection Suites for enterprises and small businesses, Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition and its acquisition of Web security appliance provider Mi5 Networks, because the suites represent a continuation of Symantec’s integration strategy and Mi5 Networks reverses Symantec’s earlier moves away from selling security hardware.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Symantec, because for enterprises the Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition is another bundling of security functions that satisfies demand for consolidated product offerings, the small business version attempts to upsell expanded functionality to small businesses that already have antivirus and don’t understand AV is not enough, and Mi5 Networks is a small acquisition that fills a Web security appliance gap in Symantec’s product portfolio.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the anti-virus market segment, which is really morphing into the anti-x market to address multiple types of threats. On the suites side, the Symantec RSA launch represents business as usual for the company and its strategy to acquire and integrate different security and related IT technologies. On the Mi5 Networks appliance side, the acquisition reverses Symantec’s moves a few years ago to move away from developing and marketing security hardware.

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