Partners of data storage leader EMC Corp. are selling anti-virus software for the companys network-attached storage devices in what EMC officials said is a preventative move.
The partners—Computer Associates International Inc., McAfee Corp., Symantec Corp. and Trend Micro Inc.—have each built a version of their anti-virus programs for EMCs Celerra NAS file server.
Don Swatik, vice president of global alliances and information sciences for EMC, in Hopkinton, Mass., said the move was made even thought none of the about 4.500 units installed worldwide have been infected.
But its a timely move, said analyst Chris Christansen, of International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass. While not yet a problem, recent viruses that most IT administrators think are now solved could be retargeted for larger-scale storage systems, and long-forgotten viruses on units holding archived files could resurface when those files are accessed, Christansen said.
“This is us being proactive, having this as extra insurance on our products,” Swatik said. “You can expect to see more in this area coming from us over time.”
Though computer viruses are an ongoing problem, EMC had to build infrastructure components first, and tailoring the protection software for Celerra “was non-trivial” and took about a year, he said. However, EMC doesnt plan to bundle any of the partneras software, he said.
The partners products are: eTrust Antivirus, from CA, of Islandia, N.Y.; NetShield for Celerra, of Santa Clara, Calif.; Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition, from Symantec, of Cupertino, Calif.; and ServerProtect for EMC Celerra, from Trend Micro, also of Cupertino. Pricing information was not immediately available.