The Hindu Business Line : Symantec opens second R&D facility in Chennai

FOCUS ON NORTON RANGE: (From left) Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology; Mr John W. Thompson, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Symantec Corporation; and Mr Anil Chakravarthy, Vice-President, India Technical Operations, Symantec Corporation, at the inauguration of Symantec's facility in Chennai on Monday. - Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai April 2 Symantec Corporation, security (anti-virus) and storage software provider, plans to launch its next generation security products in the country in two to three months. This includes Norton 360 and Norton Confidential — both part of the company's Security 2.0 suite of applications, according to Mr Anil Chakravarthy, Vice-President, India Technical Operations, Symantec.

Norton 360 will be offered as a subscription service through the Internet similar to Windows Live OneCare and McAfee Total Protection.

Security 2.0 is a second-generation security software offering protection against viruses, spam, phishing, identity theft and other online interactions, besides protecting one's computer. Symantec is also working on developing software for identity management as part of Security 2.0.

All these and future products under the Norton range would be developed at the company's second Indian R&D centre in Chennai, inaugurated on Monday.

Earlier at a press conference, Mr John W. Thompson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Symantec, said the company's Indian operations would be around 6,000-people strong in the next two to three years, including 1,000 employees in Chennai. At present, it has 2,100 employees at its Pune centre working on storage foundation and security technology development projects.

When asked about the company's monetary investment in the Chennai centre, Mr Thompson said, "I don't have a clue". He said the company saw its employees as investment.

The global market for security software is estimated at over $15 billion with India contributing $150 million to this. The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, who inaugurated the Chennai centre, said the Government had tied-up with Symantec to share data on security.

Symantec reported revenues of over $5 billion last fiscal with the Norton brand of home user products contributing about $1.6 billion. The company also owns two other brands — Symantec (catering to enterprises) and Veritas (catering to infrastructure and storage management).

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