Symantec Launches Managed Backup Services

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced Symantec Managed Backup Services, a comprehensive offering which provides management of backup and recovery operations, allowing customers to more effectively utilize IT resources and focus on core business priorities. Organizations have increasingly more platforms, applications, servers, virtual machines and databases to protect than ever before. Out-tasking discrete IT functions such as backup and recovery, ensures 24x7 availability and enables IT resources to focus on more strategic initiatives, fulfill compliance requirements and mitigate their overall IT risk.

Not only are organizations dealing with rising user expectations and service levels, they continue to deal with staffing challenges. Three quarters of the companies surveyed in Symantec's State of the Data Center survey said user expectations were rising gradually or rapidly. Furthermore, 60 percent of the respondents said meeting the service levels demanded by the organization are more or much more difficult to meet. Additionally, 43 percent of respondents said finding qualified applicants is a big or huge problem.

Symantec Managed Backup Services help customers manage their Symantec NetBackup environments on an ongoing basis -- optimizing their current technology investment. The service is designed for customers who want to take a proactive approach to their backup and recovery strategy by having Symantec experts manage their day-to-day backup operations, while leveraging existing Symantec NetBackup infrastructure.

"The current economic climate is driving many organizations to consider which functions can be out-tasked," said Adam Couture, principal analyst for Gartner. "With caps on capital spending and hiring freezes becoming commonplace, IT organizations will have to decide which functions are business critical and which can be more effectively managed by an external service provider."

Symantec Corp.