Walking the Walk

2:00 PM -- Maybe Symantec should have omitted the Veritas brand from the latest edition of the Enterprise Vault Compliance Accelerator it rolled out this week. (See Symantec Upgrades Vault.) We understand the Veritas brand still has clout when it comes to storage software, but we think this one application might be better off without it.

Why? Because from March 2004 until Symantec closed its acquisition of Veritas last July, Veritas was in the process of restating financial earnings because of accounting irregularities. (See Veritas Searches for Truth, Veritas Misses 10K Deadline, and Nasdaq Gives Veritas E’). That means while developing Compliance Accelerator, Veritas was actually out of compliance and in danger of getting delisted by Nasdaq.

Now if there's a saving grace for Veritas here, it's that Compliance Accelerator came from KVS -- a startup Veritas acquired before it got gobbled up by Symantec and after its accounting woes began. (See No Brainer: Veritas Buys KVS.) Yet it makes you wonder: If Compliance Accelerator lives up to its name, why did it take so long for the company that sells it to reach compliance?

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch