New Symantec Product May Placate Critics

It is a more pre-emptive approach to IT security threat detection, says Brian Foster, the senior director of product management for Symantec. Hamlet will use both signature-based and behavioral analysis to be effective.

Much of the technology to enable this new threat-fighting approach has come from Symantec's acquisition of private security firm WholeSecurity in 2005. Symantec has already integrated elements of WholeSecurity's technology into consumer products such as Norton 360, and hopes to launch it to businesses this year.

Symantec has also swapped its firewall technology for that of Sygate, a private company it bought in August 2005.

"We are redefining what antivirus means to our customers," says Foster. "It is not just signature and proactive protection, but it is all integrated into the same product and therefore game-changing."

Hamlet's biggest advancement, though, would be its ability to offer a centralized management console that could effectively compete with rival McAfee's(MFE) product, ePolicy Orchestrator.

But Hamlet could fall short, says Dave Robbins, CEO of BigFix, a private company that competes with Symantec.

"Hamlet tries to integrate a number of separately acquired technologies into one agent with one console, but it is not clear whether Symantec will succeed with the integration," he says. "Symantec does not have a track record of delivering successful integrations."

Hamlet could score over competitors like Microsoft(MSFT) and its enterprise security product, ForeFront, or McAfee because of its better technology and easy setup, insists Foster.

Convincing customers takes better marketing and clarity of message, says Enterprise Strategy Group's Oltsik. "Hamlet is a good product and has good functionality, but Symantec needs to convince the market that it is worth the price premium," he says.

For the company to truly have the last word, it has to articulate its grander plan and how Hamlet fits into the current security landscape.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints