On the same day Symantec Corp. started shipping its Norton 360 flagship product the company was still at work preparing Hamlet, a code name for a software suite to be released in the second quarter of this year.
While Norton 360 is predominantly a retail endeavour, Hamlet includes technology from Sygate, which it bought two years ago, that manages the security of devices such as laptops and handhelds – often referred to as “end points” of the network that need to be protected.
Tony Brockman, a former Sygate executive who now works as Symantec’s technical product marketing manager, said IT departments are soon going to have to deal with employees who go out to buy products such as Palm Treos on their lunch hour and expect to get access to the corporate network. The range of devices entering the enterprise is going to make security policies more challenging to enforce, he said.
“These are going to become a vector of attack,” he said, holding up a USB drive before an audience of customers at an event in Caledon, Ont. last week. “I see these left behind at airports all the time and I often wonder: what’s on that thing?”
Hamlet will address this challenge by incorporating several product lines that are still sold independently today, Brockman said. Besides Sygate, Symantec also gained some endpoint management through its US$830-million acquisition last month of Altiris, whose configuration management tools also offer features around device discovery.
“You’re going to see something that will offer a more holistic approach to security,” he said. “We know that you’re tired of point solutions.”
David Senf, a software analyst from Toronto-based research firm IDC Canada who presented at the Symantec event, also said enterprises were tired of tackling their security challenges in bits and pieces.
“They’ve been really bipolar about it,” he said. “They’re either buying suites or they’re doing it themselves.”
Symantec is counting on the suite approach as it focuses on five key areas, said vice-president of product marketing John Magee. These include IT operations, security management, information risk management and compliance. Endpoint security is emerging as a priority because the line between an enterprise device and a consumer device is blurring.
“People are the new perimeter,” he said. “It’s a lot more difficult to take the old lock-down-the-firewall approach. Wherever the user is, that’s where the security needs to be.”
Symantec also used the customer event to conduct a survey of its Canadian customers, the results of which will be made available for them to benchmark their own security practices versus those of their peers, execs said. The company is planning similar events later this year in Quebec, among other locations.
The Norton 360 combines all of Symantec’s threat protection programs such as anti-spyware, firewall, intrusion protection, anti-phishing, backup and tuneup into one package.
The company said it wants to eliminate the need to purchase and manage multiple products.
The suggested retail price of Norton 360 is US$79.99 (includes one-year service subscription to use the product and receive Symantec’s protection updates). Norton 360 can be installed on up to three PCs.
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