CA on security: "Watch this space"

And watch your back McAfee...

Computer Associates has spoken out about its bullish intent to secure a greater slice of the security market and also took the chance to answer rival McAfee who claims developments at CA will have little impact on its own business. Speaking to silicon.com, Hayley Tabor, CA's EMEA MD, identified major growth in the anti-virus market as the company's greatest ambition and outlined the means to this end, with a concentration on reseller partnerships set to play a major part. Earlier this month, CA announced an exclusive deal with reseller Tolerant, who had previously accounted for 14 per cent of McAfee's sales. But while CA hailed the switch as a major victory McAfee appeared unconcerned. At the time Sarah Whipp, European marketing director for McAfee's parent Network Associates, said: "The bottom line is that we don't think there will be any impact upon us. Our products were chosen by customers of Tolerant because they offered the best fit for those companies." However, CA's Tabor told silicon.com: "Of course this is a major blow to McAfee. It is wrong to think those customers will stick with McAfee. They will switch to CA. Maybe not all of them, but they will switch and we are already seeing that." However, this aggressive approach to securing market share is merely the tip of the iceberg according to Tabor, who claims CA is set to embark on a partnership programme which will tie the company's AV products to some of the biggest names in the channel. "Over the next year you will see some very aggressive moves from CA in order to grow our anti-virus market share," she said. However, one aggressive move which has been all but ruled out is major acquisition - a move which the CA of old would certainly have opted for. "This is all driven by the customers," said Tabor. "If we need to respond to our customers' needs by acquiring a technology then of course it's something we would have to consider. But are we thinking we need to go out and buy another anti-virus company in order to increase our market share right now? No." Currently CA's eTrust range of products accounts for around 20 to 25 per cent of the company's European revenues. Tabor sees that slice of the pie increasing, as well as predicting an increase in the actual size of the pie as 'spend money on security' continues to top the 'to-do' lists of CIOs.