Symantec To Offer Single-License Enterprise Bundle

Along with upgrades to its e-mail security and archiving products being released this month, Symantec on Nov. 29 plans to launch a new licensing scheme for enterprise customers that&'s slated to simplify product bundling, said Chris Miller, director of product management at the Cupertino, Calif.-based vendor.

Symantec Mail Security Enterprise Edition, a single-licensed suite of mail security solutions for SMTP gateway and groupware tiers, lets customers choose between multiplatform software-based, appliance-based and hosted service solutions, Miller said.

The new licensing will simplify things for integrators and their customers, said Dave Wade, vice president of operations at Continental Technologies, a systems integrator based in Hunt Valley, Md. Partners will be able to spend less time tracking multiple licenses on point products and more time providing the right solutions to customers, he said, adding that the new licensing scheme also will help move software customers up to appliance-based solutions.

“This allows customers to embrace the appliances and add them to their suite of products, rather than just the software products,” Wade said. “Once you have the enterprise-level licensing, you can use it at all the different levels because you are already licensed for the user count.”

Among the products that fall under the new licensing scheme are Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Domino and Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Microsoft Exchange, new versions that were unveiled Monday. Symantec also released Symantec Enterprise Vault 6.0 Service Pack 1, which expands the e-mail archiving product's capabilities to allow IBM Domino/Notes users to archive and retain e-mail for regulatory and litigation purposes.

Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Domino, which now supports Domino 7, and Symantec Mail Security 5.0 for Microsoft Exchange add spyware and adware detection as well as bring greater flexibility in filtering policies and reporting. The products deliver on-demand and scheduled reports to administrator-selected e-mail addresses, providing metrics on system health and the configuration of the number of virus, spam and content violations found over a user-set time period.