In three weeks, Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec Corp.’s chief operating officer Enrique Salem will assume the role of “CEO designate”, and drive the company’s focus back to security following a period of strayed focus, he said.
Symantec has grown its business to six billion dollars over the years, but along the way “started to get a little defocused,” said Salem.
More in ComputerWorld Canada
The company’s size has afforded it the opportunity to successfully delve in multiple areas – security, storage management, system management – but Symantec must choose one primary focus, said Salem. In his new role, Salem wants to redirect Symantec to security given it’s a matter of ongoing concern to organizations that fear losing critical customer and employee data and intellectual property.
Recession or no recession, security remains a top focus for businesses, said Salem, recalling the 2001 economic recession when “Symantec did very well in that period because security continues to be relevant.”
More in ComputerWorld Canada
In particular, he said Symantec’s expertise in data loss prevention (DLP) “will allow us to do some pretty innovative things.”
Among the soon-to-be CEO designate’s goals for Symantec, is to ensure growth, market leadership, and the continued “relevance that we have with individuals and businesses.” That said, Salem said the company must continue to invest in three areas: security, the move from tape to disk backup, and Software-as-a-Service.
Get the latest security white paper
Don’t expect a flurry of acquisitions in the short term from Symantec, said Salem, but it will announce buys in the next three to six months in areas where it can deepen its security, storage and systems management portfolios. But “what needs to happen is private companies need to reset their value expectation” before Symantec goes on a shopping spree, noted Salem, referring to a business that approached the company with an asking price that might have been relevant three years ago, but not now.
“We can be patient and we will be patient.”
Andi Mann, vice-president of research with Boulder, Colo.-based Enterprise Management Associates Inc., said there are a number of really good ways for Symantec to grow inorganically. “Symantec’s history is very strongly one of inorganic growth,” said Mann, adding that the company has made some good purchases including Altiris Inc. in 2007.
Earlier this week Symantec announced an update to its Altiris offerings.
Mann said Symantec has solid development teams that are putting a lot of work into building out technologies it already owns. “I think that needs to be their focus in the short term and not only economically, but also continuing this momentum they’ve got around integration management, with virtualization,” he said.
He agrees that Symantec did get a little defocused over the past several years and “did tend to lose their way a little bit. They got into a couple of businesses and then got out again” as with its foray into application management.
As for Symantec’s desire to renew its focus on security, Mann said while he’s witnessing security budgets remaining pretty resilient, the same can be said for virtualization and process automation. “There’s more opportunity for Symantec to focus broadly,” said Mann. “They’ve got the capability and they’ve got the integration. So by coming out and saying, ‘we’re a security company,’ I just think that undersells their value.”