25 May 2011
Symantec revealed a new internal structure and new messaging to analysts at its recent worldwide analyst conference in New York. The company is now structured along the lines of consumer/soho, SMB and enterprise lines, building from what it is terming the “three megatrends” of virtualisation, cloud and data growth. This, in itself, is a move in the right direction, giving levels of consistency and commonality across a company that has often, in the past, looked more like a collection of independent fiefdoms with barely interconnected technologies.
However, the biggest change is in Symantec’s messaging. Out goes the deep technical portfolio sell, and in comes a set of high level messages aimed at demonstrating what Symantec can do for the business. The message is strongly focused on information – not on devices.
It seems that Symantec has realised that the devices, while requiring a level of security to be applied, are no longer a key business asset, and are actually reducing in value as the consumerisation of IT passes this value to the individual. The real value is in the data and information, and if Symantec can provide the means of securing this, then the business will listen.
While Symantec still talks about what it can do for end-point management through its Altiris acquisition, and how its tools such as Backup Exec (BE) and Enterprise Vault (EV) (via its Veritas acquisition) can perform at a technical level, it is now leading with messages around how tools such as data leak prevention, e-discovery (a new acquisition via a much talked-about Clearwell Systems), encryption (via its PGP acquisition) and identity management (via its Verisign acquisition) can maintain the fidelity and security of information at rest and on the move – and along the value network of mobile users, temporary workers, suppliers and customers.
Symantec is also “cloudifying” its entire portfolio in a step by step manner. Using its MessageLabs acquisition as a base, along with the on-line backup services it bought via the SwapDrive acquisition, SaaS-based services such as EV.cloud, BE.cloud and storage.cloud are being rolled out. The platform also holds the promise of being able to support other functions; whether Symantec goes for an Amazon AWS or salesforce.com Appexchange model of allowing third parties to host applications on the Symantec cloud will have to be seen.
This is very different for Symantec – but is a very sensible step. The technical sell is not the right one for a post-recession market. Businesses need to be able to understand exactly what they are getting out of their IT investments – or will look to outside providers in the cloud to remove the complexities and problems of on-premise solutions. Symantec now has the capability to cover all bases – on-premise, in the cloud or hybrid.
But, it may not be all plain sailing for Symantec. Such a bold move puts it into competition with companies that may previously have seen Symantec as a partner or at least not as competition. Now, Symantec is going head-to-head with the likes of Amazon, as well as those in the information management space, such as Autonomy and with cloud storage providers such as Asigra as well as a host of others.
The acquisitive nature of Symantec will also be raising concerns at some of Symantec’s partners – for example Kayesa should be a little worried as Symantec gets closer to being able to provide more of what it offers. Dell, although not being threatened by Symantec in its heartland hardware business, should still look to some of the appliances that Symantec has been bringing to market and ensure that it manages to deal with Symantec where competition occurs.
The biggest issue for Symantec, however, could well be the channel. It has over 50,000 channel partners worldwide – many of which are archetypal “yellow box shifters”, selling copies of Symantec’s software in a very simple reseller model.
The new messaging does not fit this model well, and Symantec needs to be able to identify the 1-2% top performers who can fit into the new model and concentrate on getting them up to speed. It should then be able to take the resulting model and cascade this down to maybe a further 5,000 partners. Decisions may have to be made as to how much of the 40,000+ partners left over should remain – and where culling should be applied.
Although Symantec is trying to make its offerings available as both on-premise and cloud-based services, it will need to work with the channel on this as well. A subscription-based model does not fit well with many sales people, as the compensation models tend to differ. Where subscriptions can be annualised, there will be less problem, but in the SMB market where monthly subscriptions may be more of the norm, some financial help (as well as education of the channel in how subscription portfolio management can be done in a way that suits sales people) should be considered.
Overall, the messaging looks strong – and the acquisitions Symantec has made over the past few years are now looking very well positioned for the future. The devil will be in the detail, however – and Symantec will need to keep a careful eye on those partners which are not happy with the direction of the new Symantec, and on the channel which may well struggle to deal with the new offerings.
Clive Longbottom, Service Director, Business Process Analysis, Quocirca
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