Symantec 2010 Annual Report Download - page 80

PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
Symantec is a global provider of security, storage, and systems management solutions that help businesses and
consumers secure and manage their information. We conduct our business in three geographic regions: Americas,
which is comprised of the United States, Canada, and Latin America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa
(“EMEA”); and Asia Pacific Japan (“APJ”).
Our go-to-market network includes direct, inside, and channel sales resources that support our ecosystem of
more than 40,000 partners worldwide. We also maintain various distribution and services relationships with original
equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”), Internet service providers (“ISPs”), and retail and online stores. We provide
customers with software and services that protect, manage, and control information risks related to security, backup
and recovery, storage, compliance, and systems management.
Founded in 1982, Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries and our principal executive offices are
located at 350 Ellis Street, Mountain View, California, 94043. Our telephone number at that location is
[phone]. Our home page on the Internet is www.symantec.com. Other than the information expressly
set forth in this annual report, the information contained, or referred to, on our website is not part of this annual
report.
Strategy
Symantec’s strategy is to provide software and services to secure and manage information regardless of device,
platform, or where it resides. We help individuals, small businesses, and global organizations ensure that their
information, technology infrastructures, and related processes are protected, managed easily, and controlled
automatically. In addition to providing customers with traditional software solutions, we continue to expand
our Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) based solutions and appliance based solutions, giving customers the choice for
how they secure and manage information.
We operate primarily in three diversified markets within the software sector: security, storage, and systems
management. We believe these markets are converging as customers increasingly require our help mitigating their
risk profiles and managing their storage needs in order to secure and manage their most valuable asset —
information. We have taken a proactive and policy-driven approach to protecting and managing information as the
tools and processes from these formerly discrete domains become more integrated.
The security market includes mission-critical products that protect consumers and enterprises from threats to
electronic information, endpoint devices, and computer networks. Over the past year, we have seen a continued rise
in the volume of security threats. Threats are continuing to grow more targeted with a focus on stealing confidential
information for financial gain. Attackers are expanding their tactics to include targeting users with social-
engineering attacks, such as phishing websites that steal financial information, passwords, and other personal
data. The Internet has become the primary conduit for attack activity with hackers increasingly funneling threats
through legitimate websites, placing a much larger percentage of the population at risk than in the past. Data losses
are not realized solely from external attacks but are increasingly administered by malicious or well-meaning
insiders. Security continues to be a top priority for enterprises as information security is increasingly relevant to
corporate competitiveness, regulatory compliance, cloud computing, and the proliferation of mobile devices.
The storage software market includes products that manage, archive, backup, and recover business-critical
data. Key drivers of demand in this market include the growth of information that organizations must manage, the
need for data to be protected and accessible at all times, the transition from tape to disk-based backup, and the
adoption of data deduplication technology. Other factors driving demand in this market include the pressure on
companies to lower storage and server management costs without compromising performance and the need for a
growing number of critical applications to be continuously available.
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