Huawei Symantec ready to compete in North America

The Chengdu, China-based joint venture started in 2008 by China's Huawei networking company and U.S. storage and security company Symantec is now primed to take on the competition in North America, its general manager says.

Huawei Symantec Technologies, the Chengdu, China-based joint venture started in 2008 by China's Huawei networking company and U.S. storage and security company Symantec, is now primed to take on the competition in the North American market, its general manager says.

"This year, we made the strategic decision to enter North America," says Jane Li, general manager of Huawei Symantec US, located in Cupertino, Calif. near Symantec. She said the firm is ready to take on competitors Cisco and Juniper as well as security vendors Check Point and Fortinet.

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A few months ago privately held Huawei Symantec introduced into the North American market its Oceanspace S2600 storage platform for small- to midsized businesses; Oceanspace N8300 midrange and high-end storage; and Secospace USG2000 BSR/HSR multi-purpose gateway, which combines switching, routing, wireless access and voice service with security functions that include firewall, intrusion-protection and anti-spam.

Last October, Symantec Huawei announced Condre Storage as its authorized distributor and today said it has also signed a distribution agreement with Synnex.

According to Li, Symantec Huawei has about 1,000 customers, though none disclosed. Huawei Symantec's revenues also aren't disclosed, though parent firm Huawei's 2010 revenues are estimated at $3.4 billion, according to Dell'Oro Group. Symantec earlier this year reported non-GAAP revenue of about $6 billion for its 2010 fiscal year.

The joint venture Huawei Symantec is 51% owned by Huawei and 49% owned by Symantec, with John Thompson (Symantec's chairman) as its chairman and Ren Zhengfei (CEO of Huawei) as its CEO. The joint venture was established in 2008 with $150 million from Symantec, and Huawei contributing "in kind" with engineering based in China, says Li.

While some of the technologies used in the Huawei Symantec products -- including the firewall and anti-virus and anti-spam filtering capabilities -- originate with Symantec, other technical aspects, such as switching, are either Huawei contributions or combined expertise in storage.

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