Symantec to take Europe into the cloud

Symantec will begin rolling out cloud-based security within Europe next year, according to CEO John Thompson.

Thompson said the bulk of Symantec's security, back-up and archiving software would be offered as software as a service (SaaS) by March 2009.

Speaking at the Symantec Vision + ManageFusion EMEA 08 conference in The Hague today, the Symantec CEO said it will kick off its cloud expansion plans with the worldwide rollout of the online disaster recovery and backup service it already offers in the US.

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Thompson's comments echo those of Symantec COO Enrique Salem in London last week, when he noted the majority of the company's services are moving to the cloud.

"Expect that in cloud computing we will take our entire product range - the ones that are relevant - to be delivered as a service in the next three years," he said.

As well as its online disaster recovery and backup service, Thompson added the company currently has a further SaaS offering in beta, which will provide users with the ability to remotely command a PC.

"We would like to have our cloud-based services mirror our portfolio of software products," he said.

He added: "Whatever we deliver as on-premises software we want to deliver as SaaS and want to do that globally.

"I would expect us to extend our cloud offerings to other services, such as data loss prevention and archiving.

"As the fiscal year evolves, expect us to make progress in establishing a footprint, primarily in Europe but also around the world."