Symantec Enables Customers to Virtualize Business Critical Applications with Confidence

ApplicationHA and VirtualStore to protect systems from downtime and optimize storage in VMware environments

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that it will offer Symantec ApplicationHA and Symantec VirtualStore, two solutions that will provide customers the ability to confidently virtualize their business critical applications and minimize storage costs on the VMware platform. ApplicationHA and VirtualStore are the result of extensive collaboration between Symantec and VMware, as the companies work closely to help customers accelerate the adoption of virtualization to mainstream applications.

Symantec ApplicationHA, based on industry-leading Veritas Cluster Server technology, will provide high availability for business critical applications through application level visibility and control in VMware environments. Symantec VirtualStore, based on Veritas Storage Foundation technology, is a software-based storage management solution for VMware virtual machines that will provide rapid provisioning of servers and virtual desktops, efficient cloning and accelerated boot up of virtual machines. Both ApplicationHA and VirtualStore are seamlessly integrated with VMware management tools such as VMware vCenter Server, enabling customers to deploy these tools without impact to their operational model.

Symantec ApplicationHA: Virtualize Business Critical Applications with Confidence

Customers have been aggressively virtualizing non-critical applications, and now that they are starting to move business critical applications like SAP and MS SQL Server databases to virtual platforms, they require high availability of the applications inside VMware virtual machines. Symantec ApplicationHA, for the first time, will ensure application high availability by providing visibility, control and integration with VMware vCenter Server and VMware High Availability (HA).

Symantec ApplicationHA:

* Monitors applications’ health status and detects failures in the virtual machine
* Restarts failed applications
* Coordinates with VMware HA to restart the virtual machine, if needed

Administrators can fully manage all operations of Symantec ApplicationHA through VMware vCenter Server, avoiding the need for additional tools and associated training. Deep discovery and auto-configuration allows administrators to easily install, configure and administer Symantec ApplicationHA with a few clicks.

Built on the industry-leading Veritas Cluster Server technology, ApplicationHA supports a wide range of applications including MS SQL Server, Exchange, IIS, Oracle and SAP. It provides consistent functionality and usability across both Windows and Linux operating systems and is fully compatible with VMware vMotion and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS).

Symantec VirtualStore: Address Storage Challenges in Virtual Infrastructures

As organizations scale their virtual environments, they find themselves challenged by the ever increasing storage requirements and performance bottlenecks that are associated with retaining hundreds or even thousands of virtual machine images on traditional hardware filers. VirtualStore will enable administrators to fully benefit from their virtualization investments with a software-based NAS solution that scales servers and storage independently, efficiently provisions virtual machines, and delivers advanced storage optimization capabilities for VMware environments.

Like ApplicationHA, VirtualStore fully integrates with VMware vCenter Server. Based on Symantec’s industry leading Veritas Storage Foundation technology, VirtualStore can:

* Help customers reduce storage costs associated with virtual machine sprawl and improve the performance of virtual infrastructures
* Enable administrators to dramatically reduce the cost per virtual machine by repurposing existing storage investments or using inexpensive or commodity storage
* Help IT organizations reduce their storage footprint by storing only the differences between the parent virtual machine image and each clone
* Significantly drive down total cost of ownership by taking advantage of the benefits of thin provisioning

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments can also be managed more efficiently. VirtualStore’s ‘FileSnap’ feature lets administrators easily and rapidly clone and provision thousands of virtual machines in minutes through its VMware vCenter Server integration. Through innovative page caching, VirtualStore also eliminates the performance bottlenecks created when multiple users boot up their virtual machines (‘Bootstorm’).

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Quotes

* “VMware and Symantec have built a strong partnership, and it’s exciting to see the results of our collaboration, including improved management of virtual environments and increased levels of availability. Our joint customers look to us to help solve real-world problems through innovation, and we continue to work together to help customers progress on their journey to IT as a Service,” said Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware.
* “In most VMware environments, recovery from application failures requires manual intervention. Symantec has leveraged its advanced Veritas Cluster Server technology and strong partnership with VMware to build an application-aware high availability solution, largely automating the process of detecting and recovering from application failures inside a virtual machine,” said Jeff Byrne, senior analyst and consultant, Taneja Group, Inc. “We believe that Symantec ApplicationHA will give customers greater confidence to deploy their critical applications in a VM.”
* “Information must be protected and applications available for our customers to access. As virtualization becomes more widely adopted, customers need solutions that deliver higher availability and performance. Symantec and VMware are marrying Veritas Cluster Server functionality and VMware HA to improve business critical application availability,” said Anil Chakravarthy, senior vice president, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec. “With VirtualStore, we are helping organizations deal with the storage challenges that come from scaling virtual environments with a cost-effective solution that is tightly integrated with VMware vCenter Server.”

Pricing and Availability

Symantec ApplicationHA is scheduled to be available worldwide in Sept. 2010 with a list price of $350 USD per virtual machine. Symantec VirtualStore is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2010 with a per server pricing model. Symantec ApplicationHA and VirtualStore will support major platforms including Windows, VMware and Linux.

About Storage from Symantec

Symantec helps organizations secure and manage their information-driven world with storage management, email archiving and backup & recovery solutions.

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: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.