Solution Providers Upbeat On Symantec Acquisitions

Symantec

"With this set of acquisitions, Symantec continues to position itself well as a leader in both the security products and managed services space," said Paul Rohmeyer, COO at Icons, a security services firm and Symantec partner in North Brunswick, N.J.

Symantec, based here, Wednesday said it bought Riptech, a managed security provider in Alexandria, Va., for $145 million; Recourse Technologies, a Redwood City, Calif.-based intrusion-detection vendor, for $135 million; and SecurityFocus, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of threat and vulnerability data, for $75 million.

"I'm thrilled to see Symantec aggressively move into gigabit speed enterprise network intrusion detection, security event correlation, analysis and response," said Chris Ellerman, vice president of professional services at Meridian IT Solutions, Schaumburg, Ill., a Symantec partner.

"This also puts them in a great position to offer world-class security management services or best-of-breed products to their customers," he said.

Added Ellerman: "After today, people will look at Symantec a little differently. This really rounds out its story. Symantec's been moving from the consumer to the enterprise environment, and this puts them right into the enterprise."

Charles Carlson, CEO of Compeware Technology Associates, a Dallas-based solution provider, said Symantec's shopping spree aimed at acquiring technologies is similar to what competitor Network Associates did a few years ago to build its security suite.

"Now [Network Associates is just trying to keep the products they do have that are best of breed," he said.

Ellerman said he believes Symantec can successfully integrate the other companies based on how it handled its acquisition of Axent Technologies in 2000.