Symantec is laying down a strategy for integrating the two encryption-software companies it acquired, PGP Corp. and GuardianEdge Technologies.
State IT security pros feeling big budget squeezeThere is some overlap in GuardianEdge and PGP endpoint products, says Tim Matthews, Symantec director of product marketing. Product support for both will be ongoing but the integration effort that will take place into next year and beyond calls for a phased strategy that will initially focus on getting the PGP Universal Server to be the management server for GuardianEdge encryption products.
In this timeframe, "we will not 'end-of-life' any client encryption products for either PGP or GuardianEdge," Matthews says. However, a slow transition is going to bring about change, one being that GuardianEdge will eventually be called Symantec Endpoint Encryption. The PGP brand is considered strong, and is expected to be retained as an identifying "ingredient brand," though re-branding will also have PGP subsumed under the larger Symantec encryption moniker.
"What we really want to do is combine the best of both products," Matthews says, though that may take some time. "PGP had clients for Mac and Linux," Matthews says. "We'll offer those clients to the GuardianEdge base."
GuardianEdge has strong support for smart cards because of its pre-boot environment, Matthews says, pointing out a GuardianEdge product strength. Most of GuardianEdge customers are in the United States, both corporate and government. PGP is strong in the United States but also in Europe in the mid-market and small-business arenas, he adds.
Over time, there will be an integration of Symantec encryption with the Symantec data-loss prevention products, a process that has already started with Symantec's OEM of GuardianEdge prior to the acquisition of the company earlier this year.