Symantec Corp. Wednesday released a beta of its new enterprise security product, formerly code-named Hamlet, that melds technology from several of the company's acquisitions over the last few years.

The product, Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0, replaces the previous enterprise version, Symantec AntiVirus. It's a public beta, and the final version will be released around September.

Symantec has decided not to charge more for the new product. "We believe the level of protection you should get for your money should be higher," said Mathew Lodge, director of product marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The EndPoint Protection suite is the culmination of a Symantec buying spree that included acquisitions of Sygate, Whole Security and Veritas.

"We've spent a lot of money buying other companies," Lodge said. "We've integrated that technology into the new release."

Endpoint Protection includes technology that looks at how applications behave, a way to detect if a program is doing something suspicious. For example, some malicious software programs try to download other programs from the Internet, which often is a bad sign.

The suite includes other security features such as antivirus and antispyware capabilities, a firewall and host and network-based intrusion prevention technology. Another new feature is application control, which allows administrators to control what programs users can run on their machines.

Also new is Symantec Network Access Control 11.0, an optional module that can be incorporated into Endpoint Protection. The feature determines whether or not to allow a mobile device to connect to the network depending on if it is a security risk, such as if the device doesn’t have up-to-date patches.

The module accommodates both Cisco's and Microsoft's protocols for network access control, Lodge said. It can also simply authenticate and check devices when they connect to a network and make a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) request, Lodge said.

Symantec also announced a new program called Storage United, which is designed to help companies better organize their data storage even if they are using different OSes and storage hardware platforms.

The program revolves around three themes: next-generation data protection, storage management and information management, said Kevin Bailey, senior product marketing manager. Prominent in the strategy will be use of NetBackup, a storage platform that came from Symantec's acquisition of Veritas, Bailey said.

REFERENCES:
Symantec slips, but closes in on AV product delivery, May 2, 2007
Symantec mobile security client delayed, May 30, 2007