Virtualisation, Consumerisation of IT Take Stage

Press Release

Virtualisation and the Consumerisation of IT Take Centre Stage at Symantec Vision + ManageFusion 2008

Symantec Provides Insights into Future Security Trends and Technologies

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today welcomed an estimated 1,200 customers, partners and industry experts to its annual user conference, Symantec Vision + ManageFusion 2008, in Sydney. The conference highlighted key trends and advances in security, storage, and systems management and provided insights into some of Symantec’s leading development projects in helping customers secure their growing volumes of information.

The Next Wave of Virtualisation Technologies

At the conference, Enrique Salem, chief operating officer, Symantec discussed the constant stream of change in virtualisation technologies over the past two years. “The first wave of virtualisation focused on specific platforms and hardware such as storage, servers, networks, and desktops,” said Salem. “As virtualisation becomes commoditised, the next wave of this technology will change the way software is delivered, managed and consumed at the endpoint, thereby improving user productivity while reducing IT complexity. Symantec is focused on helping customers use virtualisation to separate out valuable information and manage it easily, protect it completely and control it automatically.”

The Rise in Consumerisation of IT

Throughout the conference, Mark Bregman, chief technology officer, Symantec, put the spotlight on the Consumerisation of IT. Bregman discussed the trend toward employees introducing their own consumer devices – including laptops and mobile devices – into the workplace, resulting in a change of how enterprises deliver services to their employees and customers.

“Corporate IT managers have previously enjoyed almost total control over their environments. We are seeing this change as organisations are faced with an increasing requirement for the exchange of critical information regarding customers, partners, and employees,” said Bregman. “The challenge for IT managers is to find ways to enable the use of a wide range of technologies in the workplace while ensuring the data residing in the network is secured and managed appropriately. A key part to managing this change is to put in place policies, educate employees and implement data loss prevention and encryption tools so that organisations can understand where their data is and how it is being used.”

Adoption of Whitelisting Technologies

The most recent Symantec Internet Security Threat Report XIII, found that the levels of malicious code and unwanted programs is continuing to rise and is exceeding the quantity of legitimate software released. Based on this shift, security techniques can no longer focus solely on the traditional blacklisting approach of identifying bad applications, but rather will need to adopt a combined approach that includes blacklisting and whitelisting.

“Security technologies will likely need to embrace a whitelisting approach in order to economically and effectively write signatures for a smaller set of legitimate programs,” said Bregman. “The combined blacklisting and whitelisting approach will enable Symantec to provide consumers and enterprises with flexible solutions that reflect changes in the threat landscape.”

Symantec Development Projects

Symantec has been developing a number of revolutionary technologies that will shape the future of the security industry. Some examples include:

• A New Approach to Family Online Safety: Symantec is breaking new ground with a web-based solution that is designed to create collaboration between parents and kids. This innovative technology offers a practical approach for monitoring online activities to help protect children from Internet risks. The technology narrows the gap between parents with little or no familiarity with the Internet, and their cyber-savvy kids, to foster open communication about safe online practices. The software also offers simple management and focuses on three key pillars of online activity; instant messaging, social networking and web browser control.

• Norton Insight: Norton Insight, a new technology currently in the Norton Internet Security 2009 beta, reduces the need to scan files and leverages data from millions of Norton Community members. The technology allows the Norton security products to avoid scanning any files and application that are commonly found on most computers and statistically determined to be trusted. The technology analyses both user behaviours and file reputations and will dramatically increase malware detection rates from 50 percent today to as high as 90 percent.

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help businesses and consumers secure and manage their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

ENDS

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