Analysis of the Symantec-Veritas Merger by The 451 Group: ''A bold and surprising move by Symantec'' could make it a disruptive influence in enterprise software - but could also weigh it down.SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden -- Announcement coincides with today's release of the 451 Special Report "Storage virtualization Treating storage as a single logical entity without regard to the hierarchy of physical media that may be involved or that may change. It enables the applications to read from and write to a single pool of storage rather then individual disks, tapes and optical devices. , take two: A foundation for smart storage emerges"; Storage Sector Head Simon Robinson to issue a research report on Symantec-Veritas today Technology industry analyst company The 451 Group believes Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC SYMC Symantec Corporation (stock symbol) ) could become a disruptive influence in enterprise software as a result of its proposed acquisition of Veritas Software (Nasdaq: VRTS VRTS Veritas Software (stock symbol) VRTS Verification Requirements Tracking System ), but 451 analysts caution that a failure to properly integrate the product lines could make the deal a liability. "Symantec's desire to expand beyond its antivirus footprint, which is largely a consumer play, and become a more strategic enterprise IT vendor is not new. However, given Veritas' wide range of capabilities and established footprint with larger enterprises, the combined company is sending a strong message to other software infrastructure players that it intends to be a disruptive force in enterprise IT," said Simon Robinson, Sector Head for Storage and Systems at The 451 Group. "The deal has potential competitive ramifications ramifications npl → Auswirkungen pl for several vendors, including Computer Associates, EMC (1) (EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, www.emc.com) The leading supplier of storage products for midrange computers and mainframes. Founded in 1979 by Richard J. Egan and Roger Marino, EMC has developed advanced storage and retrieval technologies for the world's largest companies. , IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and other major enterprise IT firms. "We believe it's important to also look at what's driving this merger: The two parties position the deal as an offensive move, but attack is often the best form of defense, and this could be viewed as a preemptive strike on both Veritas' and Symantec's common enemy - Microsoft - which is increasingly throwing its substantial shadow over both the security and storage markets." "Bottom line: It is a bold and surprising move by Symantec that will raise plenty of eyebrows in the industry. The deal potentially addresses two key issues in enterprise IT today - information security and availability - but software mergers are inherently risky, and Veritas' recent patchy performance in its core markets, including storage software, could weigh down Symantec's recently stellar growth." The 451 Group has issued a Market Development research report today with further analysis of this merger for clients of the 451 Market Insight Service. Separately, The 451 Group is releasing today its 451 Special Report on the second wave of storage virtualization, "Storage virtualization, take two: A foundation for smart storage emerges." Storage virtualization will be a key foundation technology that enables the development of heterogeneous storage services, which, in turn, will help enable emerging computing models, including ILM and utility computing. The 451 Group's analysts believe the competitive environment for storage virtualization technologies will undergo a significant realignment re·a·lign tr.v. re·a·ligned, re·a·lign·ing, re·a·ligns 1. To put back into proper order or alignment. 2. To make new groupings of or working arrangements between. over the coming 18 months. Cisco, IBM and Veritas are the current market leaders in virtualization An umbrella term for enhancing a computer's ability to do work. Following are the ways virtualization is used. Hardware Virtualization Partitioning the computer's memory into separate and isolated "virtual machines" simulates multiple machines within one physical computer. , but The 451 Group believes that EMC could emerge as a key leader over this period, with Veritas potentially losing market share, and that McData and Network Appliance will become primary players in storage virtualization leadership. About The 451 Group The 451 Group is a technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The company's analysts provide critical and timely emerging-technology insight to clients at vendor, investor, services and end-user organizations - insight that aids both strategic and tactical decision making for competitive advantage. The 451 Group is headquartered in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , with offices in key locations, including San Francisco, London and Boston. For additional information on the company or to apply for trial access to its services, go to: www.the451group.com |
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