Symantec Taps Autonomy
January 14, 2009
Autonomy landed another big deal, according to this Reuters’ item at TradingMarkets.com and at Forbes.com. This time Autonomy beat out a number of search and content processing vendors at the security and information management outfit, Symantec. The company owns the Norton Antivirus product, but it has been pushing into the enterprise with acquisitions and internal development. Details are sketchy, but it looks to me that Symantec will use the Autonomy system to process content stored in its enterprise back up, email, and repository systems. Information about Symantec’s full range of products and services is located here. The company’s Enterprise Vault 8.0 product is in need of a search and retrieval system. Autonomy is a player in the enterprise data management sector as well. Autonomy acquired several firms that have provided a client base and upsell opportunities. One example is Autonomy Zantaz, a company that is well known in the email and eDiscovery sector. Symantec is a $6.0 billion a year company; Autonomy is considerably smaller. However, Symantec faces significant challenges, including increased competition in the consumer sector. Enterprise data management is emerging as an increasingly important market sector. Will the Autonomy technology provide the boost that Symantec needs to maintain its growth and profit margins in these tough financial times? I think that data management requires more than search. Google, in my opinion, is one of a handful of companies with the “as is” technology necessary to handle petascale email flows, low-cost scaling, and content processing options. Symantec may have to look beyond today’s competitors and start thinking about the implications of an aggressive move by Google into this sector.
Stephen Arnold, January 14, 2009
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5 Responses to “Symantec Taps Autonomy”
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I’m a senior director at Symantec on the product team for Enterprise Vault (archiving and e-discovery) and Brightmail (anti-spam). Based on some of the speculation in your post, I thought you might appreciate a bit more insight from us. We OEMed some technology from Verity within our Brightmail product that helps to decode file attachments during content scanning and that contract renews each year. Autonomy subsequently purchased Verity in 2005. No Autonomy technology is used Enterprise Vault.
Let me know if you’d like to discuss further.
Mathew Lodge
Matthew Lodge,
In your opinion are the links to the Reuters story incorrect? I located more information at http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=2553499. The story said, “Symantec, best known for its Norton anti-virus range of products, is to licence Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer Software (IDOL) for use in-house.”
Stephen Arnold, January 14, 2009
I really am not in a position to comment on press releases of other vendors, as I am sure you understand. I can only speak to the Symantec product areas I mentioned.
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No further explanation required. ,