Symantec Expands SMB Information Protection Portfolio

SMB customers now have more options for complete and flexible protection at a lower cost

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced new enhancements to its Small and Mid-sized Business (SMB) Protection Portfolio, providing SMB customers with greater choice and flexibility for protecting the information that drives their businesses. The new Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition, available in Summer 2010, will provide SMBs with complete protection including endpoint and messaging security as well as desktop, laptop and server backup and recovery to ensure business continuity. Symantec is giving SMB customers more choices for protecting their growing businesses with hosted options for email and web security and new lower pricing for Symantec Protection Suite Small Business Edition.

Changing Threat Landscape for SMBs

Information is critical to businesses of all sizes and SMBs are facing increased risks to their confidential information— including bank account numbers, credit card information and customer and employee records. Now more than ever, cybercriminals are going after the smaller businesses that do not have the high-level security of their enterprise counterparts. A 2009 Symantec survey found that while SMBs are familiar with the information risks they face, a surprisingly high number have yet to take even the most basic steps towards protecting their businesses. The survey found that 50 percent do not have endpoint protection and 47 percent were not backing up their data.

Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition Goes Beyond Basic Security

* Complete Protection: Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will provide SMBs with a new level of complete protection, helping them safeguard their businesses from external threats, internal threats and information loss—threats that traditional antivirus products can’t address. The suite will protect endpoints like laptops and desktops, provide messaging security, and can prevent data loss with advanced content filtering at the mail gateway. In case of an outbreak or a system failure, the suite’s backup and recovery capabilities will help SMBs recover individual files and folders or complete Windows systems quickly, even to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments.
* Business Continuity: Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will combine security and backup and recovery software technologies to deliver complete information protection and keep SMBs’ desktops, servers and applications running smoothly in case of disruption. Customers will be proactively protected with real-time security intelligence from the Symantec Global Intelligence Network, which provides early threat warnings and automatic backups when new threats emerge.
* Easy Management: Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will simplify IT administration and will lower total cost of ownership by enabling SMBs to purchase and manage backup, recovery and security for the entire organization in a single suite. The suite can be quickly deployed with minimal disruption to a customer’s IT environment.

New Hosted Options Bring the Power of Cloud to SMBs

Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will give customers the flexibility to deploy on-site and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies with add-on options for hosted email and Web security from Symantec Hosted Services. These SaaS offerings will help SMBs secure and manage email and Web traffic through a single Web-based management console while greatly reducing the need to manage hardware or software for messaging security on-site.

In addition, Symantec recently launched Symantec Hosted Endpoint Protection, a new SaaS offering for SMBs who wish to deploy comprehensive security for their computer systems without the need for additional hardware or management software.

Right Sized, Right Priced Protection

SMBs cite tight budgets and lack of IT resources as top barriers to security. With the introduction of Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition, Symantec’s SMB customers will have a choice when it comes to the suite that best meets their information protection and budget needs. For the most cost-conscious small businesses, Symantec is lowering the price of Symantec Protection Suite Small Business Edition, which provides endpoint and messaging security with backup and recovery for desktops and laptops, by 40 percent.

Quotes

“SMBs today are handling valuable information and having the right information at the right time can mean the difference between success and going out of business. Cybercriminals are going after SMBs, and those who are only using antivirus as a security solution are not protected completely, putting their businesses at risk. Today’s SMBs need complete protection that can be easily deployed and managed while providing the highest level of protection.”
- Francis deSouza, senior vice president, Enterprise Security Group, Symantec

“Information can be lost in many different ways—from external hackers to an employee accidentally leaving a laptop in a restaurant, to loss from an outage or natural disaster,” said Michael Kaiser, executive director, National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). “To be truly safe, we encourage the nation’s SMBs to consider the range of the threats to their business information and take action to protect themselves appropriately. Security is more than just peace of mind for small and mid-sized businesses, it is critical to their survival.”
- Michael Kaiser, executive director, National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA)

“Many SMBs wrongly assume antivirus is all they need, when they actually face complex threats ranging from hackers trying to steal credit card data, employees who may accidentally lose intellectual property to a natural disaster that can take down servers that house their customer information. A multi-layer approach to security is essential and Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition will help solutions providers and our SMB customers completely protect the information that drives their businesses. I’ve tested the solution—it’s easy to deploy and I like the simplicity of getting a complete protection solution from one vendor that I can trust.”
- Lyle Epstein, president and CEO, Kortek Solutions

“We are a financial services company, so taking the necessary precautions to protect our customers’ sensitive information is essential. At the same time, we are a small business with time and budget constraints, so we need to be smart about finding solutions that are easy to manage and don’t drain our resources. Since implementing Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition, Payment Systems Group has not experienced any downtime due to a malware outbreak, and we’ve reduced IT administration time by more than 50 percent. Symantec Protection Suite Advanced Business Edition is very exciting because it adds messaging security as well as laptop and server backup and recovery to provide complete protection in a single solution.”
- Grant Szalay, president and CEO, Payment Systems Group, Inc.

“SMBs are especially vulnerable to security threats because they don’t typically have the time, money, or IT resources to implement the kind of comprehensive security that large companies have access to. Downtime—whether it’s due to a malware attack, a server crash, or a loss of confidential information via email— can be costly to a company of any size, but is even more critical to an SMB that faces tight margins and increasingly intense competition"
- Ray Boggs, vice president, Small and Medium Business Research, IDC

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

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Forward-looking Statements: This information is about pre-release software. Any unreleased update to the product or other planned modification is subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec and therefore subject to change. This information is provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Customers who purchase Symantec products should make their purchase decision based upon features that are currently available.