Reliability Vital For Security

In a year dominated by security topics both online and in the real world, Symantec brought some stability to the sector by finishing first for the second straight time. The company beat out rivals Check Point, Network Associates and Computer Associates largely on the strength of its support and customer loyalty, and by scoring high on the product innovation scale.

Joseph Dell, CTO of Atlanta-based information security integrator Vigilar, says reliability is the key to preventing and responding to attacks like the Sobig and MS Blaster worms. "We have an early-warning system from Symantec," he says. "Of the two or three available, it's the most reliable one, and the move to proactive solution-detection systems has been a boon to them."

Symantec's product quality/reliability score was down significantly from last year's. However, that's true for the entire category and less indicative of a decline in quality than an increase in security needs and demands by more VARs and customers.

Allyson Seelinger, Symantec's vice president of sales, marketing and services (and our 2002 Channel Exec of the Year), says the company's focus on the channel has paid off. "We rely heavily on the channel and try very hard to be channel-friendly," she says.

The company has performed especially well in delivering reliable products, providing strong technical support and integration of products, and reducing channel conflict to "almost none," she says. "The challenge for us in the coming year is to continue improving our support and capitalize on the changes we've made to our certification program," she says.

Despite Symantec's stellar reliability, Check Point earned the highest product quality/reliability ranking. At the other end of the survey spectrum was Network Associates with this year's lowest score for its partner portal (Magic Solutions Self Service customer portal). Granted, Check Point, which placed second overall, made some gains on Symantec, but it hasn't been able to rise to the top spot yet. It had better hurry. With a Gartner-estimated market share of the infrastructure security market on the rise--it already went from 21 percent in 2001 to 27 percent in 2002--Symantec seems poised to strengthen its grip on security's throne.