What a difference a day makes. Just yesterday I posted to this medium about the challenges emerging from the deceptively rapid blurring of lines between programs and applications. The key problem as I see it it that distinct elements of state, configuration, version and ultimately portability of a virtualized OS or application can become lost in a "computing cloud" (locally owned or internet-based). Such a loss can lead to technical problems or operational issues, most risky in this latter category is a fouled compliance process.
Symantec, via its VERITAS software group, has had its eye on this problem for sometime. Its obvious to many that some of the tools in the Altiris portfolio can address these matters. But, the nature of this root problem is far more subtle and tough to address than the vendors of virtualization solutions will confess. Well before Symantec considered adding VERITAS to its family, the folks at VERITAS (Burton and Bregman) planted a flag in the sand with the insightful yet misunderstood acquisition of Ejascent. The merger of that technology with CommandCentral showed promise JVM-centric applications. However, as time moved forward the containerization of operating systems (a la VMware, Microsoft's Hyper-V/Virtual Server, SW Soft and others) over took the mind-share of application virtualization and portability due to shear capital savings on hardware. Symantec has both benefited and struggled with IT buyers hardware parsimony.
Not that the AppStream buy will end the struggle with IT buyers' new views, but it does put Symantec back in the thick of the data center race - a race to define the landscape for Service Oriented Infrastructure. Symantec has an interesting situation, amplified by this pick-up, as its can now counter-balance heavy-weights HP, IBM and EMC; an act its VERITAS legacy knows well. Symantec can also leverage its position as incumbent in the Enterprise data center in distinction to Microsoft/Softgrid, Citrix/Xen and VMware - all being relative new comers especially to the EDC.
So, as I said yesterday, the reality is that infrastructure matters a great deal. And not just to technology innovators, but to IT professionals and buyers trying to keep afloat with new applications, various flavors of virtualization and ever shrinking capital budgets. With this acquisition, Symantec has refreshed it opportunities with these and others customers.
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May 01, 2008
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Who I'm Talking To
- They're Everything You Want Your Kid To Be...
...smart, fast, continuously engaged! Truviso brings a game changing solution to the analytics market and in the process changes the nature of the market by simplifying it while making it a constant facility and in expanding the applicability of analytics processes. Expect more form me on this company and product soon. - Pillar Data & Application Awareness
Pillar Data, the Larry Ellison backed storage company, has become a prime example of the market's growing recognition that application-orientation for infrastructure technologies is more than a marketing label. Look for more on them from me soon. - EMC and IOMega-The Spending Spree Rolls On
An outstanding pick-up. Still, unanswered questions remain. - Nirvanix-Driving The Storage Cloud
Nirvanix, and companies like it, are reinventing the process and reliability of using "internet" accessible facilities to storage and archive all manner of business data. Nirvanix is one to watch as this space grows.
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Robert Burton: On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not
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