Confirmed: Symantec Shifts to New Cloud Computing Brand

Say goodbye to the old Symantec Hosted Services brand. As TalkinCloud speculated last week, Symantec has shifted its SaaS and hosting efforts to the Symantec.cloud brand, a spokeswoman for the company has confirmed.

According to the Symantec spokeswoman:

“The Symantec.cloud brand reinforces Symantec’s commitment to the cloud.  It highlights the company’s position as an industry-leading provider of cloud-based services and simplifies the choices within the Symantec portfolio.”

In addition to the updated logo, all SaaS product names will now reflect the Symantec.cloud name, the spokeswoman added. For example, Symantec Hosted Endpoint Protection now becomes Symantec Endpoint Protection.cloud. “Going forward, all new cloud-based services will include the ‘.cloud’ suffix and align with the corresponding on-premise Symantec offerings to make buying clearer and easier for our clients,” she stated.

Smart Move?

I must concede: I like Symantec’s new branding strategy. I realize some cloud-branded services suffer from excessive hype. But consistent branding will help Symantec channel partners — and customers — to more easily differentiate between on-premise and cloud offerings.

No doubt, the old Symantec Hosted Services brand had some momentum, as The VAR Guy (TalkinCloud’s sister site) pointed out in August 2010. But Symantec was also hindered by its legacy on-premise offerings. During the Symantec Engage Partner Summit 2009, practically all of the event content involved on-premise solutions with barely a mention of cloud offerings. By Symantec Partner Engage 2010, it seemed like Symantec was finally waking up to the cloud opportunity — though CEO Enrique Salem tried to keep things in perspective.

For more than a year now, Salem has repeated a prediction that about 15 percent of Symantec’s revenues will come from the cloud within the next few years. That’s about $1 billion in potential annual revenues. Impressive, but it doesn’t sound so dramatically large when positioned as only 15 percent of Symantec’s total revenue.

Looking ahead, Symantec is set to participate in a managed services road show with Level Platforms. That effort could provide further clues about Symantec’s recurring revenue efforts for channel partners.

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