Symantec intros consulting service to solve IT risks

LAS VEGAS: Symantec Corp. today announced Symantec Foundation IT Risk Assessment, a comprehensive consulting service designed to provide customers with an overview of their current IT risk exposure and guidance on remediation. The new service is a critical component of Symantec Global Services' broader agenda to help customers address all IT risk areas - security, availability, performance and compliance.

Exposure to IT risk grows as organizations face greater IT complexity and become increasingly dependent on IT to support key business operations. Companies of all sizes are realizing the impact that IT system failures can have on their core business and are taking steps to manage IT risk as part of an enterprise-wide risk management strategy. However, many organizations lack the proper skills and resources to assess and address IT risk through a systematic approach that aligns IT with business priorities. Symantec Foundation IT Risk Assessment helps customers take the first step toward a comprehensive IT Risk Management program. The service identifies, categorizes and prioritizes current IT risks so investments can be made in projects that manage IT risk, cost, and performance for maximum business returns.

"Businesses today are dealing with an increasing amount of pressure to understand all of their own unique IT risks that could impact their infrastructure, threaten their core business or jeopardize compliance," said John Oltsik, Enterprise Strategy Group. "In addition to IT leaders, senior executives also need to understand the current status of their IT risk posture in order to implement a larger risk management plan. Symantec's strong history in working with customers in all areas of IT risk will provide a unique offering to those organizations in need of developing their IT risk management foundation."

Symantec Foundation IT Risk Assessment is built on Symantec's expertise in IT risk management and is delivered through a proven methodology that includes industry accepted frameworks and standards such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and BS17799. Seasoned Symantec consultants work directly with client executives as well as business and technical teams to develop a clear view of the customer's current risk posture and desired future state. A series of interviews and internal dialogues objectively identify and categorize the client's risk level, then prioritize risks based on their perceived value and impact to the core business.

Symantec Consulting also leverages the Symantec INFORM (INFOrmation assurance Risk Model) tool to gather qualitative and quantitative data from the clients and to generate gap analyses and solution recommendation reports. The INFORM program is a set of vendor neutral tools, based on Symantec's unique peer benchmarking platform made up of more than 800 customer surveys on IT risk management.

In the final phase of the Foundation IT Risk Assessment service, customers receive a full report which includes an executive summary of the organization's IT risk posture as well as recommendations for both tactical and strategic steps for remediation. With this information, customers then have the necessary foundation from which to build out a larger IT risk strategy. In addition, customers gain insight that allows them to understand IT risk exposure, improve IT performance, and balance risks and costs so IT can be used with confidence to drive innovation.

"As organizations become more dependent on their IT systems to conduct business, IT risk has become a primary concern for business leaders and other key stakeholders as they assess their larger risk management strategies" said Greg Hughes, group president, Symantec Global Services. "Symantec Foundation IT Risk Assessment will provide customers with confidence about defining, assessing and maintaining their IT risk strategy."

Symantec Global Services is one of the leaders in providing services and solutions that manage IT risk, help reduce costs, and maximize IT performance. Symantec consultants have worked with 95 percent of the Fortune 500 and possess an average of 15 years in IT risk management disciplines including security, availability, performance and compliance. Symantec Global Services includes Consulting, Education, Enterprise Support, Managed Services, Security Response and Software as a Service.