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"IT shops of all sizes are saying, 'How do I manage all these new technologies?'" he said. "Consumerization is real. It's putting pressure on IT, because we went through a world of trying to stand fast. Our goal is, let's try to make every machine as similar to the next one as possible with common software."
The second trend Symantec is watching is what Salem called the "IT-ization" of the consumer. Consumers are getting more devices in their homes, but typically don't have a systems administrator to handle the complexity that this brings.
"Home users don't have the technical sophistication," he said. "We need to think about what we are going to do as a company to help."
The third trend, mobility, plays off the fact that there are currently 1.4 billion PCs and 1 billion smart devices connected to the Internet. That number is set to rise dramatically in the next few years, according to Salem, who quoted estimates from American Express that there will be 10 billion smart devices connected to the Internet by 2014.
"What this means is, if you look at the traditional mobile phone, it wasn't that intelligent of a device," he said. "Every handset going forward will have Internet capability, and will have smart interconnects."
Next: Mobility And The Social Enterprise
