Last week Symantec announced a bold initiative to change the way that backups were being run, specifically targeting businesses in the region that were at risk of losing valuable data due to incorrect data backups. I sat down for a chat with Amit Walia, VP of Product Management and Brian Greene Senior Director of Product Management with Symantec to find out just how the company was looking to make this ‘backup revolution’ a reality.

You’ve recently announced Symantec Backup Exec 2012 – the software is already an industry leader in backup and recovery, so what could you possibly have added to make it even more robust?
We launched BackupExec 2010 two years ago, and we usually don’t wait two years for a release; we release a new version every year. We literally redesigned the user experience from the ground up. To give you an example, BackupExec has been around for more than thirty years and we know how our customers use our product, we know the best practices for backup policies, and we know the biggest pains that hinder our customers. We’ve been adding new technologies to our products year on year, and it’s made the entire experience extremely complicated. SMBs for example don’t have the expertise that Enterprises will have with dedicated staff. They just want to run their backup and that’s it.

So we thought about spending two years and redoing the user experience from the ground up. If you look at the product now, we’ve eliminated the process of running jobs. So what we now focus on is the resource that you’re trying to protect, so each resource or server now becomes a logical unit in the product. You can then club these servers by a site, by location, by importance, by type, whatever you need. We’ve made it just so easy to manage your servers and resources that anyone can get into it. Changing user experience is always the hardest thing to do because users are familiar with the interface and don’t want to switch to anything different. But the response we got and keep getting is that we did the right thing.

You had a public beta for BackupExec 2012 running from December – what kind of feedback did you get from that?
We were, for lack of a better word, nervous. We’re making it simple but we’re changing something fundamentally – we’re creatures of habit and it’s not always easy to adapt to something that looks or behaves differently. But the feedback we received from the beta was extremely positive – before we released it to the public for testing we gave it to our QA engineers, and after the first day they remarked that they never wanted to see the old version ever again! The same thing happened to our customers who had been using BackupExec for a really long time; after they tried out the product they realized that all that feedback that users had been giving us ended up in this version of BackupExec. So we’re really glad with the results from the beta and where the product has reached. It has changed the way that people look at backups entirely and reduced the time spent actually running their backup.

Cloud computing and storage has come leaps and bounds in the last year – given that Backup Exec.cloud is integrated into your 2012 edition, do you think a lot of businesses are now opening up to the idea of storing their backups and data in the cloud?
I think the answer is a yes and a no, and let me explain what I mean by that. In the large enterprise segment they won’t look at the public cloud obviously because of security reasons and the sheer volume of the raw data that would have to be pushed out. So those companies create their own private cloud so that they have the scale to get the benefit of the cloud. Where enterprises may look to public cloud would be for remote backup management or something similar – everything else will stay ring-fenced in their private cloud.

For the SMB the public cloud is absolutely something they can look at. I’m not saying that all companies will charge towards using the cloud, but the momentum is certainly moving quite rapidly. So we created BackupExec.cloud for the small business customer and remote offices. Anything that’s non mission-critical can be put onto the cloud which is a great way of skipping the hassle and costs of getting a physical server up and running. Don’t forget that for the consumer side of things Norton Online Backup is another driving force – in total Symantec manages over 90 petabytes of data across consumers and businesses.

Brian Greene and Amit Walia

The rate at which both personal and corporate data is being accumulated is just staggering – do you think that current storage methodologies are going to be able to scale enough to keep up with this ‘data hoarding’? Or is it getting far too complicated?
I’ll give you a two-step answer to that. First when we mean ‘better backup for all’, we don’t just mean a solution; we also mean backup policies. 70% of data that’s being backed up hasn’t been accessed in 90 days or more. So many companies don’t understand the difference between archive and backup – they think it’s all the same thing. I think we’re still scratching the surface when it comes to backup and storage. The right policy in place can work wonders for an organization and really reduce the amount of time, effort, and cost that goes into running backups. If companies continue to backup and store data that is redundant, it’s going to severely cost them in the long run, not to mention making it difficult to retrieve individual parts of data when they need to. We of course have things like Enterprise Vault for more robust archiving, and recently we acquired a company called Clearwell that specializes in e-discovery to quickly locate a specific file rather than having to restore an entire backup and then look for the file. It’s all about minimizing the complexities of backup and recovery and making it as easy and as accessible as possible.

You did mention in your presentation that there are companies that are backing up to CD and DVD – do you worry that some companies are spending all this money and time on running backups but not actually running through proper policies or recovery situations where they can actually access the data?
I think I see the most problems happening with the small entry-level businesses. They know that they need to be backing up their data, but they don’t always go about it in the right way. They aren’t aware of the risks involved in running incorrect backups, or they assume that all backup solutions are very expensive affairs or technically cumbersome for them to implement. So BackupExec Small Business Edition and BackupExec.cloud are squarely targeted to those customers who don’t have a proper backup strategy. We make it so that within ten minutes they’re able to be up and running their first backup – no hassles whatsoever. We’re not just educating them, but we’re also making it easy to buy and setup the right backup solutions. We’ve patented our processes so that no matter what you’re looking for, you can home in on a particular file or email and recover it in a matter of clicks. Even when it comes to virtual backups we’re making immense strides forward so that you don’t have to mount the entire VM to recover a file, and that’s what makes our customers feel confident when using our solutions.

Should be interesting to find out if this will work over BES or BIS services.

“Organizations typically lack the ability to see the full spectrum of network threats,” said Charles Kolodgy, research director at IDC. “They need deeper insight into the whole set of threats in order to provide full protection for critical business systems such as data centers. Integrating threat detection provides full visibility when inspection isn’t enough or when it isn’t feasible for cost or scalability reasons. In an incredibly dynamic threat environment, the ability to detect malware in real-time can provide tangible benefits.”

Today’s announcement reinforces McAfee’s innovative approach to solving the toughest challenges in network security. Full Spectrum Network Defense is the first solution to integrate a network intrusion prevention system with behavioral analysis tools to provide additional visibility across the network, real-time threat protection technology, and enterprise risk assessment tools.

“Customers have come to rely on McAfee for the best network protection available, and our commitment to them is to continue to innovate and break the molds of traditional Network IPS and firewall capabilities,” said Dan Ryan, executive vice president and general manager of the Network Security business unit at McAfee. “With Full Spectrum Network Defense, we are reinforcing that commitment by integrating best-in-class security technologies into our network defense products. We will continue to deliver on customer demand by providing powerful new tools that extend visibility into the vast unprotected areas of the network.”

Industry-Leading Advancements in Network Security
Full Spectrum Network Defense identifies traffic, users, content and applications, and defends against any threats that may exist across the network. The solution is powered by McAfee® NetPrism technology, McAfee’s patented protocol analysis approach to network threat protection, and features enhanced interlock between network security, endpoint security, and global threat intelligence, to deliver the world’s most advanced threat protection. New features being announced in the Full Spectrum Network Defense Solution include the following benefits:
• Real-time malware protection – McAfee is the first and only vendor to offer day-zero malware protection, enabled by McAfee® Artemis technology, which is tightly integrated with IPS. Supported by threat sensors distributed around the globe and McAfee’s proprietary threat analysis, IPS is able to provide ‘pre-protection’ against zero day malware, in addition to our leading vulnerability-based network protections.
• Network Threat Behavior Analysis – McAfee is releasing a new set of threat analysis appliances, which provide a comprehensive way to inspect the entire network for threats and correlate network behaviours. Additionally, McAfee is the only vendor to provide Layer-7 flow export. This, when coupled with network flow data, empowers security analysts to ‘turn on the lights’ across the network with visibility into users, data, and applications.
• Integration with McAfee Risk Advisor – McAfee’s unique decision support tool empowers administrators to immediately identify which systems are vulnerable to an attack that is underway. By analyzing the vulnerability state of endpoints and the countermeasures currently deployed, this new feature will enable IPS administrators to rapidly deploy a signature to ensure protection of devices pre-patch.
• Network Security Management – The single Network-centric console manages all aspects of the solution, including real-time threat analysis and integration of global threat intelligence feeds. McAfee IPS and behavior analysis solutions are the only solutions that offer native integration with McAfee® ePolicy Orchestrator™ security management console.

Availability
McAfee Network Security Platform M-series appliances are available today, with Version 6.1 software available in December. Pricing for the Network Security Platform M-series starts at $10,995 US. Network Security Platform T-series is generally available in Q1 of 2010, with pricing starting at $26,995. Exact pricing depends on customer requirements, selected model and associated add-on modules.

The McAfee Email and Web Security Appliances include new features and functionality, including:
• Artemis and TrustedSource™ Technology Integration: The first appliance release from McAfee that links to global threat intelligence from its Artemis and TrustedSource technologies, the most precise and comprehensive threat intelligence system in the world
• Appliance Clustering with Load Balancing: Multiple appliances can clustered to share scanning responsibilities for improved resiliency, scalability and consolidated management and reporting
• Simplified Installation: Auto-detects network settings and provides an easy to use configuration wizard, helping to simplify installation requirements, reduce installation time and improve the overall user experience
• New Content Policy Wizards: Simplified creation and set up of content policies through the new configuration wizards and advanced dictionaries simplify policy creation, enable greater enforcement flexibility and reduce false positives and configuration errors
• Integrated URL Filtering: URL filtering is also included in the 5.5 release at no additional cost. Integrated into the appliance, the URL filtering includes more than 90 Web site categories providing granular Web usage monitoring and policy enforcement. The URL filtering also includes the McAfee Web Reporter package for simplified viewing of Web utilization and trends.

“In addition to their market leading security effectiveness, these appliances also provide customers with email and Web usage policy enforcement capabilities, compliance tools, informative dashboards and comprehensive reporting,” said Dave Macey, general manager of the Network Security business unit, McAfee. “McAfee’s combined intelligence capabilities add an essential layer of protection to guard against today’s most advanced threats and work by accumulating data from millions of sensors, creating a real-time profile of all suspicious activity and content, and then watching for deviations based upon expected behavior.”

McAfee Provides the Highest Level of Protection
The McAfee Email and Web Security Appliances offer better than 99 percent spam detection accuracy[1] and are backed by the #1 ranked[2] anti-malware detection technology in the industry. By integrating with McAfee’s real-time, cloud-based global threat intelligence, the appliances provide increased visibility into Web and email-based threats, protecting customers more efficiently and reducing both security acquisition and operational costs. With 350 threat researchers and tens of millions of data collection sensors, McAfee’s global research is extensive.
“Customers want advanced email and Web security technology that is available as a single solution under a single management console—with the McAfee Email and Web Security Appliances, there is no duct tape required,” said James C. Foster, chief executive officer of Ciphent, a McAfee Elite Partner. “McAfee is different from the competition in that it never limits users to a single policy for all users, and all features for both email and Web are inherently included across the board. We proudly work with McAfee and recommend their solution as the one our customers can trust.”
“The Email and Web Security Appliance is our primary line of defense and has provided solid protection from viruses on inbound email,” said Roger Norfolk, GroupWise administrator and antivirus technology instructor, Mercy Hospital. “Last month it stopped over 3.3 million pieces of spam, 76 infected emails and 32 Potentially Unwanted Programs with a legitimate email count of 175,935. In a year it has blocked over 17 million messages, with very few false positives.”

Availability:
The latest version of the McAfee Email and Web Security Appliance are expected to be available globally later this quarter. To learn more about the appliances, which are available now available now through McAfee’s worldwide partner network, please visit http://www.mcafee.com/ews.

The company will also meet the influx of customers, industry specialists and channel partners keen to learn more about Fujitsu Technology Solutions mobility and enterprise solutions.

While mobility solutions such as notebooks continue to be a major focus area, Fujitsu Technology Solution will also focus on its entry-level sever for SMB’s, theTX100 S1, and its FUTRO 100 thin clients among other solutions.

“Gitex has always presented us with the opportunity to meet our existing as well as potential customers and further promote our solutions. Our presence at OracleWorld this year will give us the opportunity to leverage our newer solutions such as the new-generation PRIMERGY BX900 that raises the stakes in virtualization and energy-efficiency, a must for organizations seeking to achieve cost savings and increasing IT systems’ agility at the same time,” said Chandan Mehta, Product Manager for Fujitsu Technology Solutions. “We are also addressing the concerns of SMB’s with the TX100 S1 server. It is affordable and will allow small businesses to move away from using a PC in combination with an external hard drive for storage and upgrade to a proper business class server.”

Fujitsu Technology Solutions will also be present at Gitex Shopper thorough its partners.

As a result, customers can maximize resource utilization, improve administrator productivity and drive business growth.

HP also announced the first virtual desktop infrastructure solution for under $1,000 per user seat.(1) The solution was demonstrated during VMware Chief Executive Officer Paul Maritz’s keynote presentation today.

Virtual desktop infrastructure is a server-based computing model that gives users a PC desktop experience, while securing all applications, management and processing in the data center. The HP Virtual Desktop Reference Architecture for VMware View specifically addresses the performance bottlenecks and management complexities of other offerings. Customers can test the solution in select HP solution centers worldwide.

Industry analyst firm IDC predicts that companies will spend nearly $100 billion by 2012 on the management and administration of virtual servers and expects that new virtual server installations will outnumber physical server shipments, starting as early as the end of this year.(2) HP is the first provider to address these challenges by delivering a converged infrastructure that brings together all data center resources, including server, storage, network, I/O, application and desktop.

“Chief information officers need solutions that increase the cost-saving benefits of virtualization while cutting through the complexity and administrative issues caused by virtual sprawl,” said Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Infrastructure Software and Blades, HP. “For more than half a decade, HP and VMware have jointly invested in technologies that enable customers to maximize the value of their virtualization efforts. By extending virtualization beyond servers through HP’s converged infrastructure solutions, customers can fully realize the potential of their people, applications and technology infrastructure.”

ROI. Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for a composite Enterprise and the associated ROI analysis illustrating the financial impact areas. The risk-adjusted ROI for the composite Enterprise is 129 percent with a breakeven point (payback period) of 14 months after deployment.

Reduced malware infections. By adopting Trend Micro Enterprise Security powered by the cloud-client architecture of the Smart Protection Network, customers were able to improve malware detection and reduce annual infections significantly. The study found that Trend Micro Enterprise Security reduces the overall number of infections by 34 percent and further reduces incident spread by 60 percent, for a total infection reduction of 73 percent per year.

More specifically, Enterprises realized:
o A 30 percent reduction in infected client devices and a 40 percent reduction in the spread of infections, yielding an overall 58 percent infection reduction using Trend Micro™ OfficeScan™ Client-Server Suite.

o 20 percent fewer infections from accessing malicious Web sites for enterprises using Trend Micro™ InterScan™ Web Security Suite Advanced.
o 25 percent reduction in infections from opening infected emails for those using Trend Micro™ InterScan™ Messaging Security Suite Advanced.
Conclusion: Reduced Costs, Better Protection with Trend Micro Enterprise Security
Forrester Consulting concluded that for the Trend Micro enterprise customers interviewed, “faster detection and protection of Web, messaging, and endpoint threats resulted in a lower overall number of infections, incidents, as well as reduced severity of incidents. This, in turn, resulted in improved IT operational efficiency through reduced administration and support costs as well as improved end user productivity through a reduction in the downtime due to incidents.”

Trend Micro Enterprise Security customers get more than just the quantified benefits illustrated above. Customers who participated in the study said that Trend Micro Enterprise Security offered qualitative advantages such as reduced chances of customer data breaches, and reduced probability of detrimental impact to enterprise systems – both of which can lend to less negative corporate publicity.

For more information on the commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, The Total Economic Impact Of Trend Micro Enterprise Security, please visit: http://us.trendmicro.com/us/home/enterprise/tei-executive-summary/index.html

It is designed to:
o Provide IT/Security decision makers with an in-depth description of why customers choose Trend Micro Enterprise Security powered by Smart Protection Network and the ways that it has benefited them.
o Provide Finance and other senior decision makers with a thorough analysis of the ROI, Payback Period and Net Present Value of standardizing on Trend Micro for their content security solution.

Methodology
Forrester Consulting conducted in-depth interviews with seven Trend Micro enterprise customers. The composite organization that Forrester synthesized from the results of these interviews represents a North America-based services organization with roughly 6,000 employees and 5,000 client devices located in 10 offices throughout North America and Europe.

About Trend Micro Enterprise Security
Trend Micro Enterprise Security is a tightly integrated offering of content security products, services and solutions powered by the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™. Together they deliver immediate protection from emerging threats while greatly reducing the cost and complexity of security management.

The Smart Protection Network combines cloud-based file, Web and email reputation technologies, feedback loops and the expertise of TrendLabsSM security researchers to provide the continuous real-time threat detection and protection services that power Trend Micro Enterprise Security solutions.