Symantec Execs: Deal Registration Fueling Security-Storage Synergy

That synergy is now being realized through deal registration, said Tom Kendra, executive vice president of worldwide sales and services at Symantec, at the vendor’s Partner Engage 2006 conference in Palm Desert, Calif.

Kendra said 16 percent of partners registering deals are doing so for both security and storage opportunities. Before the merger, about half of Veritas' revenue went through channel partners, but in the wake of the merger deal that figure has jumped to 63 percent, he noted.

The deal registration program has been a success so far, said Julie Parrish, vice president of Symantec’s global channel sales and strategy. Symantec now has 270 partners in its North American deal registration program, and solution providers have registered a total of 2,658 deals since the beginning of the year, she said. That’s notable in light of the fact that Symantec and Veritas merged their sales forces April 1, she added.

Symantec will continue to encourage partners to get into deals and register opportunities early, executives said. Partners who register incremental opportunities with Symantec currently get up-front margin and back-end rebates, but from June 1 to June 25, partners who register deals will get an extra two points on the back end, said Randy Cochran, vice president of channel sales for the Americas at Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec.

Symantec's LiveState Recovery solution, which includes LiveState Recovery Advanced Server, Restore Anywhere option, and Lights Out Recovery option, will be rebranded Backup Exec System Recovery. The solution will be available under its new name on July 18, at a new price of $1095.

Backup Exec System Recovery provides continuous data protection and enables users to restore systems in the event of data loss. Both features are tailor-made for companies that don't have an IT staff and need the ability to rescue lost data, according to Cochran.

"Small businesses need this capability more than anyone because they don’t have a help desk they can call to replace complete systems," he said.

Reducing complexity in the data center is another area of focus for Symantec, Kendra added. "Customers want to reach a point where the data center is a utility," he said.