Adobe, McAfee Partnership Brings DLP To Document Protection
Specifically, the partnership will combine McAfee's DLP technologies, which offer policy-based data classification, with Adobe's Enterprise Digital Rights Management platform featuring policy-based document protection, in an effort to further strengthen security and policy around critical data.
Executives say that the combined DLP/DRM technologies will allow organizations to more easily secure critical business information, such as intellectual property or regulatory compliance data, while being able to map data classification policies with rights management policies. The integration also enhances an organization's security infrastructure by protecting data against both internal and external threats, executives say, equipping them to adhere to compliance initiatives such as PCI DSS, HIPAA and the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
"The brass tacks, it's really about providing more automated data protection that can ultimately be provided inside the enterprise as well as outside the enterprise boundary," said John Carione, senior product marketing manager for Adobe's LiveCycle Enterprise Suite.
The partnership promises to expand both McAfee's and Adobe's customer base significantly. Under the terms of the partnership, McAfee will distribute its consumer Security Scan tool for free to Adobe customers who download Flash Player and Adobe Reader, as well as its enterprise product, Discovery DLP, on various Adobe products.
McAfee executives said that the company has more than 65 million nodes of its enterprise management console ePolicy Orchestrator. The Adobe partnership would expand security technologies beyond those managed by EPO to Adobe's consumer, as well as its enterprise, customer base.
"As a result of this integration, we can expand the scope of the deployments," said Malav Patel, group product marketing manager for McAfee data protection. "Any user that has Adobe Acrobat Reader can take advantage of this integration and offer the same level of data protection to those users as they have for the current enterprise users."
Adobe also benefits with the integration of McAfee's patented DLP technologies into its LiveCycle ES policy-based document protection products.
Meanwhile the partnership promises to put increased pressure on direct competitor Symantec, which occupies significant security market share with its array of data archiving products, as well as its existing DLP, endpoint encryption and device control products.
For channel partners, Patel said that Adobe's technologies would also be combined in a comprehensive, high-end suite, scheduled for release in early 2010, which partners could upsell to their enterprise customers.
Meanwhile, the San Jose, Calif.-based company is reaching above and beyond Web software, expanding into site management and traffic analytics after its recent purchase of Omniture for $1.8 billion.