Thompson Outlines Symantec's 2006 Strategy

The main challenge that companies face today is from criminals using increasingly sophisticated attacks that target personal and financial information on corporate networks, and Symantec has developed a strategy of layering security at all levels of the network to deal with threats, said Thompson.

"We’ve moved past the days where backup and clustering technologies were sufficient to protect the data center and where antivirus software and a firewall were all that was required to protect the desktop," Thompson said.

Thompson said a main area of focus for Symantec in the coming year will be on software that protects networks from threats introduced by e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP, and other forms of online collaboration. "Just sniffing traffic on the network isn’t sufficient [to protect networks] when you consider the attacks we have seen over the last year," Thompson said.

In addition to filtering spam and protecting enterprise network endpoints, the ability to filter messages and keep sensitive data from being sent out of the corporate network is another critical component of network security, added Thompson.

Symantec, which currently devotes 15 percent of its annual gross revenue to research and development, will also focus on helping companies meet requirements for regulatory compliance, said Thompson. "IT policy compliance has become a major business driver. It’s no longer enough just to install security software. You need to know that it’s installed, running, and up to date – otherwise, the organization is at risk," Thompson said.

Another issue that companies face is complexity in corporate data center environments caused by multiple operating systems and proprietary tools. Symantec plans to address the issue by standardizing on a platform that protects every part of the data center while also streamlining and automating management tasks, Thompson said.

Symantec's Data Center Foundation strategy, to be officially announced Tuesday, "is all about creating a standardized software infrastructure layer across your data center. It gives you the ability to enhance your service levels and drive down operational costs," Thompson said.

The long term goal of this strategic push is to allow companies to build a data center that automates the process of managing IT services, Thompson added. "In this world, IT isn’t a cost center, but rather a source of differentiated competitive advantage," he said.