The VAR Guy

At the Symantec Partner Engage event in Orlando, Fla., Symantec CEO Enrique Salem reinforced the company’s continued commitment to Software as a Service (SaaS) . Still, Salem said SaaS will only represent 15 percent of company revenues (or $1 billion in annual sales) within five years. Here’s more on Symantec’s SaaS strategy.

Symantec appears to be making some subtle but strategic changes to its SaaS and channel partner efforts. Say goodbye to the Symantec Protection Network and hello to Symantec Hosted Services and the new Symantec Partner Community. The VAR Guy suspects many of those efforts will be discussed at Symantec Partner Engage (Nov. 4-6, Orlando). Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy will be in four places at once the week of Nov. 2. The reason: ConnectWise Partner Summit, the HTG Peer Group meeting and Symantec Partner Engage all are in Orlando, Fla., that week. Three events — right down the road from Walt Disney World. The VAR Guy couldn’t have planned the schedule better himself. Oh, except for one nagging problem…

The John Thompson era is over at Symantec, and new CEO Enrique Salem (pictured) is striving to give channel partners peace of mind as Symantec marches forward. With that goal in mind, Salem has dispatched a letter to partners. The letter contains trusted IT advisor jargon — verbiage The VAR Guy typically avoids. But, let’s give Salem credit here. He is wise to show some love to Symantec’s channel. Take a look.

When asked what Symantec has learned from the 2005 Veritas acquisition — which under-performed expectations the first few years — Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem described  three lessons.

Symantec Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem says the company is weighing whether (or not) to replace former global channel chief Julie Parrish. Here are some options he’s mulling.

During Symantec Partner Engage, Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem said the company plans to spend roughly $1 billion annually on acquisitions — targeting roughly three to six companies per year — for the foreseeable future.

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.

Within moments of taking the stage at the Symantec Partner Engage conference this morning, Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem answered the unspoken question on The VAR Guy’s mind. Here’s what Salem said, along with five themes from his keynote.

The VAR Guy just downed his third Latte in six hours. He’s gearing up for extensive briefings at today’s Symantec Partner Engage in Washington, D.C. The theme: Partners, Symantec says, are the heartbeat of the company. It’s a strange moment in The VAR Guy’s online life: He’s surrounded by Symantec PR as he writes this.

When The VAR Guy last month noticed Julie Parrish wasn’t scheduled to speak at Symantec Partner Engage, he started asking hard questions: Was Parrish — Symantec’s global channel chief — still with the company? Would she be at the event? At first, Symantec PR said all was well and Parrish would be present. But then the story changed dramatically.

Julie Parrish does, indeed, plan to attend Symantec Partner Engage in Washington, D.C., this October, according to a company spokeswoman. Our resident blogger was curious yesterday when he noticed that Parrish wasn’t on the event agenda. But the spokeswoman assured The VAR Guy that Parrish, VP of Symantec’s Global Channel Office, will be in the house, and meeting with press during the event.

The VAR Guy intends to keep a close eye on Symantec Partner Engage — a channel event scheduled for Oct. 15 to 17 in Washington, D.C. The conference is an ideal setting for Symantec to break bread with any partners that are worried about the company’s channel commitment. However, here’s something curious: Julie Parrish, VP of Symantec’s Global Channel Office, is not listed as a guest speaker on the agenda.