Perhaps its Microsoft’s pressure on Symantec by encroaching in AV and other areas that is pushing it to go after markets where players (like EMC) have weaker positions or are of little interest to Redmond.(SaaS CM, Backup, et.al)

All speculation – but still fun to think.

Tower on the other hand was a true content management product. Symantec and Zantaz were not left off because of some petty reason at Gartner but because they are in a different category.

I have always felt that managing documents in production is something completely different than just the finished end product. Just because you understand how to optimize the storage of end data does not mean you understand how to manage data in a state of change.

You do nail one issue clearly in that Symantec is better positioned than EMC for the consumer market. Selling software to Mary is very different then selling to the Mary Kay Cosmetics Corp (something I learned firsthand at Trados). But when we look at “consumer-side content management, Microsoft is the clear leader in that battle.

So back to my original point. If Symantec tries to move into ECM from the bottom, it will encroach upon Microsoft. With it clear strengths in the consumer space, it will be easy for Microsoft to crush the competition that Symantec brings to the table in consumer ECM.

EMC has been competing with EV with eMailXtender for years. Symantec may be on the AV Magic Quadrant but they are not on the one for ECM – yet. Next year HP’s name will replace Tower’s and their resources potentially shift the balance. Symantec could and may do the same.

Beyond CMA though, this is a challenge in general to EMC as Symantec is drilling into their storage and ITSM space. What’s more, they are in a better position to capture the consumer storage market based on their existing product lines.

These are big companies with alot more than burgers on the menu.

So let’s go back and try to clarify the point I thought you were trying to make, you’re saying that the next logical step is that Symantec is to move into ECM. This is because there’s pressure in the antivirus market and the fact that content management is highly fragmented with limited barriers to entry both make CM the easy choice. Right?

EMC is VERY much interested in in the SOHO market. Need I remind you of the iomega banners at EMC World. EMC would love to get in to the pockets of the consumer. Of the 3 you mentioned, only Oracle seems uninterested in the lower tier market.

I don’t see Symantec sandwiched in the middle tier at all. You’re still thinking Norton – Think Veritas. Enterprise Vault is the most widely installed email archiving solution I am aware of. I would argue that this is all about big business since SOHO has less pressure to create formal email archive. It’s a growth area but still doesn’t represent the lionshare of the market.

I haven’t seen all of the numbers, but Symantec remains one of the AV softwares of choice in the large commercial space. They need to stretch to continue growth and CM (in small and large enterprise) remains a fragmented market they can leverage their email and AV customer lists to pursue.

Crosshairs or not, Microsoft competes with McAfee and Symantec both in the AV market. Since they have cash burning a hole in there pocket they can’t spend on Yahoo! – maybe they’ll drop $6 bln on Dave and McAfee.

(and yes – I misspelled McAfee earlier – thanks for letting me know)

Symantec’s content management solutions are target at the SOHO (Small Office Home Office) or small business markets. Areas that EMC, IBM, and Oracle are not playing in today. On the other hand that’s exactly where Microsoft is focusing. So it will be interesting to see which space Microsoft puts it energy on as Symantec tries to gain customers from the smaller end of the market and the major vendors try to keep their lock on the top of the market.

Lacking a content management solution put’s McAfee out of the crosshairs of competition with Microsoft. At the same time it also puts a different angle on the kind of relationships that Microsoft and EMC may be looking for with McAfee in the future.