Symantec to Launch Virtualization Business Unit

Symantec has created a new business unit devoted to virtualization software. The Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) acquired with the company's purchase of Altiris in early 2007 will serve as the starting point for a range of possible products and services, which will also incorporate technology from a number of other Symantec products.

Company sources say the business unit, called the Endpoint Virtualization Business Unit, has already been set up internally at Symantec and will be announced shortly.

The new unit will be led by Ken Berryman, a former principal at McKinsey & Company, who will answer to Symantec COO Enrique Salem, a Symantec vet who took on the COO job in January and has led an ongoing internal restructuring.

A central aspect of the new unit's plans will involve possible uses for the SVS technology, which is able to keep multiple applications running in separate virtual instances, activated on demand. One potential service, for instance, could be temporary software rentals. There also are several security applications and services that may evolve.

Formation of the new unit is part of an overall restructuring at Symantec, details of which the company has been sharing with investors and analysts for a couple of months.In a form 8-K filed with the SEC in late February, for instance, the company explained that it has re-aligned its enterprise product groups "to improve collaboration across the organization." Enterprise product line chiefs now report to Salem. Another change is the consolidation of the NetBackup and Backup Exec teams at Symantec under the leadership of Deepak Mohan, formerly the VP of Symantec's Data and Systems Management Group.

The general reshuffle has resulted in the departure of at least two execs.

"Thomas Kendra, group president of the Security and Compliance group, is no longer serving in such capacity with Symantec effective as of February 20, 2008," the SEC document states. "He is expected to continue to provide services to Symantec through the June quarter as it completes the transition to its realigned organizational structure."

Also gone -- or going -- is Greg Butterfield, the group president of the Altiris business unit and formerly CEO of Altiris. Like Kendra, Butterfield relinquished his role on February 20 and will continue to "provide services" to the vendor through the June quarter, according to the filing.

John Thompson, CEO of Symantec, explained these last two changes at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium in February: "When we announced Enrique in January, it should have been apparent to people that he was not the only one aspiring to be the COO in the company, and therefore those other aspirants are going to make choices about what they want to do."Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.