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Symantec and VMware Partner to Deliver Extensive Protection for Virtual and Cloud Environments

Symantec and VMware Partner to Deliver Extensive Protection for Virtual and Cloud Environments

Symantec Provides Broad Security and Compliance Portfolio Integration with the VMware Cloud Infrastructure Suite 

SAN FRANCISCO – RSA Conference 2012 – February 28, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) today announced five new security integrations with the VMware cloud infrastructure suite, designed to deliver extensive protection for virtual and cloud environments along with operational cost savings. With new VMware integrations, Symantec enables joint customers to protect their virtual infrastructure and business-critical applications with data loss prevention, IT risk and compliance, data center protection, security information and event management (SIEM) and endpoint protection solutions – delivering stronger security, scalability and cost reductions for rapid services delivery and enhanced business agility for the cloud.

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"Companies today face an increasingly toxic threat landscape.  True information protection is more than antivirus.  With our new VMware integrations, we're enabling customers to proactively protect their information whether it's in a physical or virtual environment,” said Francis deSouza, group president, enterprise products and services, Symantec.  “Together, Symantec and VMware are taking protection to the next level to give companies confidence to fully embrace virtualization and realize the cost savings and efficiency it brings."

"The unique security concerns of the cloud extend well beyond malware protection,” said Raghu Raghuram, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Infrastructure and Management, VMware. “The integration of Symantec products with the VMware cloud infrastructure suite will offer fundamentally new security capabilities to accelerate the ability of customers to quickly and safely realize the benefits of cloud computing."

Symantec and VMware will continue to collaborate to ensure customers have both the security and compliance controls necessary for cloud deployments, both on- and off-premises. In addition to integration between Symantec endpoint security offerings with VMware vShield™ Endpoint expected to be available later in 2012, Symantec is introducing five new integrations with the VMware cloud infrastructure suite:

Orchestrated Data Loss Prevention

Symantec Data Loss Prevention, available now, addresses the growing challenge organizations face in finding and protecting their intellectual property wherever it resides.  Integration with VMware vShield App enables Symantec customers to more easily find and locate their most valuable information across their virtual environments.,  Symantec Data Loss Prevention makes it easier for customers to identify and remediate potential data loss in their virtual environments by automatically separating virtual machines that contain sensitive information from those that do not.

Reduced Compliance Deficiencies Across Converged Infrastructure

Symantec Control Compliance Suite, available now, uses centralized vulnerability and control assessments to provide seamless discovery of unknown or unauthorized virtual machines to reduce security risk in the physical and virtual infrastructure. Leveraging VMware-published security standards, Control Compliance Suite is also able to assess virtual settings to identify areas of risk and help prioritize remediation efforts. This helps prevent application failure or data corruption on virtual machines, while facilitating compliance with mandates such as PCI or HIPAA.  In addition, Control Compliance Suite can ensure that the VMware process guidelines are being followed with procedural questionnaires while automatically reporting on configuration changes, patch levels and critical policy violations on VMware vSphere®.

Protect Virtual Data Centers Against Advanced Threats
Symantec Critical System Protectioncurrently protects ESX® guest and hypervisors with granular, policy-based controls. Symantec plans to add support for VMware vSphere 5 in Spring 2012, leveraging out-of-the-box VMware-prescribed server security policies for ESXi and VMware vCenter™ that will enable organizations to identify server compliance violations and suspicious activity in real-time, limit administrative control, restrict network communications and prevent file and configuration tampering of the virtual infrastructure. Because Symantec Critical System Protection is a non-signature, policy-based technology it also allows organizations to stop unauthorized services from running on servers and protect against zero-day attacks, without impacting system performance.

Integrated Threat Intelligence

Symantec Security Information Manager (SSIM),available in Summer 2012, will enable organizations to seamlessly identify and respond to security threats that impact business critical applications across both their physical and virtual infrastructures.  Through integration with the VMware vShield log management collector, SSIM will correlate virtual machine activity with events from the physical environment as well as the Symantec's global intelligence network to give a holistic view of an organization's security posture. Customers will be able to perform malicious activity assessments for their entire environment—physical and virtual— gaining immediate insight into malicious activity and threats inside their virtual infrastructure.

Symantec's Managed Security Service (MSS) will also offer a VMware vShield log management collector to allow customers who prefer a cloud-based service delivery model to benefit from a seamless view of security threats across both their physical and virtual environments.  The addition of the vShield log management collector to already broad array of devices and applications MSS monitors, will further extend MSS edge-to-endpoint visibility and when combined with global threat intelligence and 7x24 access to GIAC-certified Security Analysts will allow organizations to reduce exposure to threats and business disruption. The vShield log management collector is expected to be available in Summer 2012.

Optimized Endpoint Protection for High-density Virtual Environments

Symantec plans to leverage VMware vShield Endpoint with its endpoint security offerings to maximize performance in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and virtual server environments without sacrificing powerful security. Available in the second half of 2012, these solutions will offload critical security analysis from protected virtual machines to a dedicated security virtual appliance resulting in optimized scan performance, reduced resource utilization, and increased management visibility. Built upon Symantec Insight, these solutions will provide fast and effective endpoint security for VMware environments, offering unique protection against modern polymorphic malware, zero-day attacks and rootkits.

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About Business Solutions from Symantec
Symantec helps organizations secure and manage their information-driven world with endpoint security, messaging security.

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

About VMware

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

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Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.  Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
VMware, VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter, VMware vShield and ESX are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding plans for the release of new products and their planned functionality and benefits to end users. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to (i) ongoing evaluations by Symantec and VMware; (ii) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (iii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iv) competitive factors, including but not limited to new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (v) our customers’ ability to develop, and to transition to, new products and computing strategies such as cloud computing and desktop virtualization; (vi) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; (vii) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software and platforms for cloud and desktop computing; (viii) changes to product development timelines; (ix) our ability to protect its proprietary technology; and (x) our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees.. These forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware and Symantec assume no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.