Symantec Snaps Up Clearwell to Enter E Discovery Market

July 20, 2011

I do some odd jobs for Enterprise Technology Management. Among them is hosting podcasts on various topics. Last week we did a podcast with several luminaries in the e discovery market. E Discovery is a term used to describe the content and text processing required to figure out what is in unstructured content gathered in a legal matter. There doesn’t have to be a law suit to trigger a company’s running an e Discovery project, but unlike search, e Discovery beckons legal eagles.

We read the article “Symantec acquires Clearwell Systems for $390m.” Perhaps best known for their antivirus software, Symantec also offers an array of information management solutions. Clearwell Systems specializes in e-discovery tools, used in response to litigation and other legal/ investigative matters.

Symantec gains much with the acquisition:

Symantec notes the acquisition will add archiving, backup and eDiscovery offerings to its existing offerings, enabling it to offer a broader set of information management capabilities to customers. The deal will help Symantec provide future product integration opportunities with Symantec backup and security, Symantec NetBackup, Data Loss Prevention and Data Insight, the company said.

This acquisition moves e-discovery to the cloud, while continuing the appliance approach.

On the podcast I learned:

There will be a push for more hosted services. Autonomy has done a good job with its Zantaz acquisition and its hosted services, so Symantec is going down a route that leads to a pay off.
The Clearwell approach will continue to feature its rapid deployment model. I associated the phrase “rocket docket” with Clearwell which connotes speedy service.
The Clearwell report and user audit functions will be expanded and enhanced. I saw a Clearwell report and watched an attorney pop it in an envelope for delivery to another attorney. The system impressed me because the report did not require any fiddling by the attorney. Good stuff.

Naturally, other new services are planned. Stay tuned.

Cynthia Murrell July 14, 2011

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under EDiscovery, Enterprise, News, Security, Text analytics, Text processing

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.