Symantec 2007 Annual Report Download - page 17

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and consumers. Symantec Security Response provides customers with comprehensive and global Internet security
expertise, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to guard against today’s multi-faceted Internet threats. The Symantec
Security Response Team issues a semi-annual Internet Security Threat report that provides an analysis and
discussion of trends in Internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malicious code activity, and other security risks. We believe
that this report is one of the most comprehensive sources of Internet threat data in the world, identifying emerging
trends in attacks and malicious code activity. When a new threat or vulnerability is discovered, our Security
Response experts provide a rapid emergency response that consists of communication with customers and delivery
of security updates for our security products.
Our enterprise security support program offers annual maintenance support contracts to enterprise customers
worldwide, including content, upgrades, and technical support. Our standard technical support includes the
following:
• Unlimited hotline service delivered by telephone, fax, email, and over the Internet
• Immediate patches for severe problems
• Periodic software updates
• Access to our technical knowledge base and frequently asked questions, or FAQ, facility
• An invitation to our annual user group meeting
Our consumer product support program provides self-help online services, chat, and email support to
consumer customers worldwide. A team of product experts, editors, and language translators are dedicated to
maintaining the robustness of the online knowledge base. Generally, telephone product support is provided for a fee
by an outside vendor. Customers that subscribe to LiveUpdate receive automatic downloads of the latest virus
definitions, application bug fixes, and patches for most of our consumer products.
Customers
Our solutions are used worldwide by individual and enterprise customers in a wide variety of industries, small
and medium-sized enterprises, as well as various governmental entities. In fiscal 2007, one distributor, Ingram
Micro, accounted for more than 10 percent of total net revenues. In fiscal 2006 and 2005, two distributors, Ingram
Micro and Tech Data Product Management, each accounted for more than 10 percent of our total net revenues. In
fiscal 2007, 2006, and 2005, one reseller, Digital River, Inc., accounted for more than 10 percent of our total net
revenues.
Research and Development
We believe that technical leadership is essential to our success. Therefore, we expect to continue to commit
substantial resources to research and development. Whether we maintain our technical leadership position will
largely depend on our ability to enhance existing products, respond to changing customer requirements, and
develop and introduce new products in a timely manner.
The Symantec Security Response Team is responsible for a significant component of our research and
development efforts. Our Security Response experts, located at research centers throughout the world, are focused
on collecting and analyzing the latest malware threats, ranging from network security threats and vulnerabilities to
viruses and worms. To simplify and speed up the delivery of security updates for our product offerings at the server,
gateway, and desktop levels, we use our LiveUpdate
TM
technology.
Outside of our Security Response research centers, other major research and development initiatives for
storage and availability products include:
• Continued focus on operating system platform expansion
• Development of new infrastructure products, including server provisioning, clustering, application perfor-
mance management, and service level management
• Initiatives to improve replication, storage resource management, and next generation virtualization
technology
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