Symantec and Gideon Technologies Acquisition - A natural IT Management software combination

Last week Symantec announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Gideon Technologies, Inc. Gideon Technologies should fit well in the Symantec security suite, judging by initial press releases and Web feeds based on the two technologies. Gideon’s ability to provide automated IT security and risk management with Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) should be an extremely well received product line to Symantec’s public sector and federal customers.  Security is always such a big part of what we do, adding a solid product like Gideon makes good sense for Symantec, already a strong IT security company. It will be interesting to see if Gideon is able to play well and integrate with the Symantec Management Framework and other security products.  Will Symantec learn from its Altiris acquisition that time is of the essence in product integration?  I suggest they take a play book from the Vontu acquisition in terms of urgency and rollout.   I bring up Altiris and Vontu only because I think Gideon could fit in extremely well with these technologies and play with them.  Could Gideon’s technology and functionality be the big “Security” piece Altiris has been missing in the past?  Time, but hopefully not too much time, will tell…