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Chinese Security Appliance Vendor Enters North American Market

Huawei Symantec Technologies, a Chinese-based maker of network security and storage appliances, announced today that it is entering the North American market by signing a distribution agreement with Synnex, a major IT products distributor. Huawei Symantec is going to begin selling its firewall, security routers, intrusion detection technology, NAS and SAN storage hardware, and other products in this region because it believes the market is poised for growth in 2011.

"It's almost like a perfect storm," said Jane Li, general manager of Huawei Symantec's North American market. "Our products have reached a mature stage and have been proven again and again. And the U.S. economy is ready to pick up again."

Huawei Symantec is a joint venture established two years ago by Huawei Technologies of Chengdu, China, and the security and storage management software vendor Symantec, of Mountain View, Calif. Symantec owns a 49 percent share of the joint venture with the rest owned by Huawei.

The deal is a "watershed event" for both companies, says Robert Amatruda, a storage industry analyst at IDC.

"It really represents a new route to market [for Symantec], which really relies on licensed and packaged data protection software. And Huawei is really looking to move upmarket beyond just selling boxes, and a partnership with Symantec is really positive," says Amatruda.

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