Symantec continues to bet on R&D

Everyone in the technology industry should be sure to read this recent article in BusinessWeek that discusses current problems with the Silicon Valley business model and ideas for improvement. The article suggests that VCs and many firms are too concerned with short-term financial exit strategies rather than real investment in R&D.

Just after I read this article, I happened to meet with Symantec about a new project coming out of its internal incubator called Go Everywhere. Go Everywhere is an online workspace that actually aggregates other services from Web sites like Box.net, Google, and Zoho. In other words, Symantec is using its IT management skills to consolidate available Web resources into a manageable personal online workspace for business users. Pretty cool stuff.

This is not your father's Symantec. The company is branching out, experimenting with R&D dollars, and using the Web to build a beta program--a far cry from its reputation for antivirus and backup alone. What's more, Symantec readily admits that Go Everywhere may never become a product, but it remains willing to invest. The company figures it needs to take risks like this to find its next growth area.

In these uncertain times, it is easy to streamline budgets, cancel projects, and lay off employees, but it take real guts to invest in the future. For the good of the industry, I hope more tech firms and VCs follow Symantec's lead.

[Mr. Dee]

I love Symantec EndPoint 11, too bad it does not work on Windows 7 BETA 1.

[pkokkinis]

What are you, a sado masochist? I've tried rolling out EPP in 3 completely different environments, with 3 completely different team members, the ONLY common denominator was.....EPP. Yeah, I like pain. Not just problems, but random problems, like from not being able to login on several workstations until EPP was disabled, or certain applications (sql based) would not work, again, on some workstations and not all. Inconsistancies across the board, like installed size in the Add/Remove Programs applet: 350MB on one, 480 on another, 920 on another. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said, until I hit the Symantec boards. Wow! Anyone looking to go from SAV to EPP should spend 5 minutes perusing through these things. Sure, only people having a negative experience will ever go to the boards in the first place, but what people would say about EPP.....O....M.....G! Whatever, so you like EPP. ok.

[grsullivan_0324]

"In these uncertain times, it is easy to streamline budgets, cancel projects, and lay off employees, but it take real guts to invest in the future. For the good of the industry, I hope more tech firms and VCs follow Symantec's lead."

FYI, Symantec is laying off employees. While it is good that they are putting money into R&D, which is funny since they live and die by acquiring companies to gain their intellectual property, they have just completed outsourcing their IT organization to EDS/HP and are in the process of ridding themselves of other Administrative groups like finance. The company has lost talent due to these activities. If an employee is not involved with developing products or selling them your job is on the line. It is just a sign of the times and the hot thing to do.

So while you paint them in a rosy picture here, please do your research and tell the whole story.

[aBostonGuy]

<b>"If an employee is not involved with developing products or selling them your job is on the line."</b>

Doesn't that seem like a sensible approach, focusing as much as possible on R&D and selling, rather than internal / support functions?

[kojacked]

I hope they invest in QC as well. Their AV products have been problematic for years. Right off the top of my head:

1. With the latest Symantec EndPoint Protection11 on my laptop half the time it (smc.exe) takes all available CPU when I wake it from standby. If I leave it alone overnight it never relents. If I kill smc.exe from the task manager it restarts and then behaves.
2. With the latest Symantec EndPoint Protection 11 on my daughter's brand new laptop everything worked great out of the box...until an automatic update (from Symantec via LiveUpdate) applied itself to Symantec EndPoint Protection 11 and then all networking ceased to route (wired and wireless). All firewalls were off/disabled. Uninstalling their POS product fixed the problem. Funny: I install McAffee and have no problems...

[Mr. Dee]

Sorry, but I have not had the problems you folks are experiencing with EPP 11. Maybe its your bad attitude that caused it not work as desired.

[onceasymian]

Jon, you might be interested to know that Symantec shut down a research lab in India (ironic, huh?) as part of its recent cost-cutting measures. It's not just the support functions that are being cut back.