Hopes to deliver better, more integrated products

Oct 10, 2014 09:44 GMT  ·  By

Rumors about Symantec planning to separate the security business from the data storage one have been confirmed by the company, which announced that the transaction would complete by December 2015.

The decision was taken as a result of a comprehensive business review regarding the organization’s strategy and operational structure, and it is supposed to maximize the opportunities for both branches, which will function as separate, publicly-traded companies.

Michael Brown, Symantec CEO and president, said that this move would allow distinct strategies to be applied, as well as focused investments and go-to market innovation, thus maximizing the growth potential for each of the businesses.

“Separating Symantec into two, independent publicly traded companies will provide each business the flexibility and focus to drive growth and enhance shareholder value,” he said in the official announcement published on Thursday.

Security business covers both consumer and enterprise protection

The security side of Symantec will gravitate around three main elements, designed to integrate telemetry and intelligence data into a threat analysis platform, increase the number of cyber-security service capabilities, and simplify and integrate its security products portfolio.

The new company will offer consumer-level security products, as well as cyber-protection solutions for corporations, from endpoint to mail, server and web gateways.

For enterprises, ATP (advanced threat protection) and DLP (data loss prevention) capabilities will be extended into more Norton products. An ATP defense gateway is expected to become available by the end of this fiscal year.

Financial information from Symantec reveals that the security business generated a total revenue of $4.2 / €3.3 billion in the fiscal year 2014. With strategies specifically centered around the business, the numbers should increase.

The divisions that will form the new company, which has not been given a name at the moment, include consumer and enterprise endpoint security, endpoint management, encryption, mobile, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificates, user authentication, mail, web and data center security, data loss prevention, hosted security, and managed security services.

Smaller, specialized companies are better at malware detection and response

A lot of security companies on the market today dedicate their efforts to a specific type of service, and it appears that this strategy works very well.

Symantec saw the increased opportunities for its security side to thrive as a separate entity and made the separation call.

Commenting on the matter, Marcin Kleczynski, CEO at Malwarebytes, said via email that the rapid pace at which threat actors innovate makes it difficult for traditional companies in the industry of cyber  protection to keep up, as they are “often burdened with layers of bureaucracy.”

The success of a smaller enterprise stems from the fact that they are nimbler and can adapt more easily to a new threat environment.

“The decision to split Symantec in two is a perfect example of this need for focus in the security sector. By freeing itself from the distractions created by trying to capture a variety of markets, Symantec can be more single-minded in their response to the ever advancing threat landscape,” Kleczynski added.