During Symantec Partner Engage, the company offered an update on the IT threat landscape and Symantec’s endpoint protection strategy. Here are some key takeaways from George Myers, director, product management, endpoint security, Symantec.

The problems:

So how can partners begin an endpoint protection discussion with customers? Some thoughts from Myers:

1. Lay the foundation: Endpoint Protection 11.0 opens up discussions beyond anti-virus. Anti-spyware, firewall, intrusion prevention, device and app control and network access control are all possible hooks into the conversation.

2. Reducing the footprint: At launch, Symantec concedes, some partners said they didn’t see a reduction in the security footprint. But with MR3 — the latest revision to Endpoint Protection — some customers are seeing 25 percent faster boot times, according to Myers.

3. Broaden the discussion: Symantec is asking partners to pitch Altiris Client and Server Management as part of the security discussion. The solutions, Myers said, address those patch management and system configuration issues noted by SearchSecurity’s research, claimed Myers.

4. Other ways to broaden the discussion: Add encryption, data loss prevention and compliance-related solutions to the discussion.

Clearly, Symantec is spending a ton of time talking about information protection here. It’s an important topic. But the hot button for The VAR Guy is selling recurring services into a weak economy, and offering customers automated, managed solutions that can lower operating costs. So far, Symantec has only touched on that theme here at the event.

The VAR Guy will share more perspective on that later today.