Enabling confidence in connected world

According to John W. Thompson, chairman and CEO, Symantec Corp., the exponential growth in information had fueled equally explosive growth in infrastructure complexity. Simultaneously, it had multiplied risks to security, availability, performance and compliance. He was delivering the keynote at the ongoing Symantec Vision 2007 Summit in Las Vegas, at the sprawling Venetian.

According to him, today’s extended enterprise included employees, partners, suppliers, and customers, collaborating across time zones with laptops and Blackberries, on email, IM and wikis, just to name a few. We’re now living in an era of more collaboration and online interactions, an era, in which the user is in charge.”

Thompson added that the growth of the connected world had blurred the lines between enterprises and consumers. New business models, from 24/7, R&D organizations to global supply chains were introducing new ways of serving customers. IT systems were currently the essential drivers of collaboration, innovation and growth.

Enterprises needed to be confident that they have systems and software in place to keep data secure, and that they could make information available, as and when, and where it is needed. Finally, they also needed to be confident of getting the maximum out of their IT investments.

Similarly, customers needed to be confident too, that their interactions as well as the information they are providing online, and the various devices they were using were both secure and reliable. It was not easy for both customers and enterprises alike to gain such a level of confidence.

Thompson added: “IT leaders recognize that the convergence of security, storage and management is a reality in today’s IT markets. That the domains of security and infrastructure management are intertwined, and that you cannot separate security risks from the applications or systems infrastructure. As a result, we have seen a fundamental shift, businesses are now more focused on managing risks across their organizations.”

He said Symantec was now in a unique position to address customers needs to reduce IT complexity, cut costs and improve efficiency. Symantec is said to be offering the industry’s broadest portfolio focused on risk management to a wide range of customers.