Symantec, Other Security Vendors @ Crucial Junctures-IDC

The International Data Corporation (IDC) at the weekend commented on Symantec as the latest technology company to slit into two.

Commenting on the trend, Fayaz Khaki, associate director, European Information Security, IDC said that, indeed, all traditional security vendors, are at crucial junctures in their history. 
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Symantec have been toying with a split for a while – it has finally happened.

Khaki said, the decision does make sense to split the two businesses especially if integrating them proved to be either problematic or difficult to align strategies.

"The security market has and continues to evolve away from the areas in which Symantec have traditionally generated the most revenue. 

"As a result, their security business has come under threat recently by other niche vendors and also by smaller vendors who have been able to respond to market changes quicker," the Associate Director said.

Khaki added that the split allows Symantec to react to market changes quicker and also to ensure they can focus on a purely security related market strategy.

"Theoretically, this should allow Symantec to bring products to the market faster.  Symantec – indeed all traditional security vendors – are at crucial junctures in their history.

"The growth in the industry will come from cloud and mobile technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT) is also a huge potential growth market".

Khaki added that growth in the traditional markets in which security vendors play, i.e. desktop, laptop security, is fairly flat.

"Security vendors need to adapt to ensure they don’t miss market opportunities – speed to market with the right products is key to ensuring relevance and long term growth," he concluded.‎