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.