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Symantec Corp. took a step toward integrating its security software with storage technology it acquired from Veritas Global Software Corp., announcing the Email Security and Availability program.
The offering ties anti-virus and anti-spam hardware and services from Symantec to Veritas archiving and data backup technology. Symantec hopes the new program appeals to companies worried about the dual problems of e-mail-borne attacks and new data retention regulations, according to Nick Mehta, senior director of product management at Symantec.
But Mehta acknowledged that ESA is mostly a conceptual grouping of technology. Customers looking for true integration between Symantec and Veritas products may have to wait several more months, he said.
The program comes as companies are facing increasing pressure to deflect growing waves of spam and phishing e-mails and filter out viruses from e-mail traffic but also comply with regulations such as those of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that require organizations to retain e-mail for set periods and have a consistent policy for deleting such communications, said Mehta.
ESA combines Symantec products such as the Mail Security 8160 Series and Mail Security 8200 Series appliances and Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange and Symantec Mail Security for Domino with Veritas products such as NetBackup, Backup Exec and Cluster Server.
Symantec will publish white papers on how the different products fit together and can be used for end-to-end e-mail security and compliance. Beyond those advantages, however, the value of the new program is difficult to gauge.
Symantec is still a year away from introducing a management dashboard that aims to give customers a way to control both Veritas and Symantec products on a network. The company also hasnt decided on pricing incentives for the program. Customers must still purchase and deploy the products in ESA individually, Mehta said.
At Direct Media Inc., a mailing list management and brokerage company in Greenwich, Conn., the ESA program just gives a name to a system that the 250-person company has been running for years using Symantec Antivirus and Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange and Veritas Enterprise Vault and Backup Exec software, said Kevin Ladd, director of infrastructure at Direct Media.
Symantec is currently the only company with all the technology pieces to create a front-end-to-back-end messaging security solution. However, the Cupertino, Calif., company will face competition in the future from a range of players, including Microsoft Corp., which is readying Data Protection Manager, a disk-based backup tool, for release.