Symantec announced earlier this week that it is launching a new subscription business whereby it is renting out its security expertise to corporations that need constant vigilance in the war against cybercrime.
That’s right – they’re renting out an employee. It doesn’t sound that novel. Oh wait, there’s more: it’s one of Symantec’s finest, a trained expert. Well I should hope so! With a sticker price starting at $325,000 I would hope you get a trained expert and the constant vigilance had better be 24x7x365, including holidays!

In a time when companies are belt-tightening because of huge budget constraints and laying off senior, experienced employees, you would think there would be a lot of red-tape to tear through to get this approved. Not to mention green. How green is it to have a security expert travel to each and every company to provide security needs and analysis when we have all the tools available to allow us to connect remotely and virtually protect networks from anywhere in the world?

Symantec believes that this approach allows the corporation access to a lot more information than small-time consultants could ever have at their fingertips.

Sounds like great idea, IF your IT budget is $50MM a year. Not to mention, cybersecurity is not a one-off thing and should be something that your anti-spam/anti-virus provider should be doing all the time.

Bottom line, whether it’s mail flow optimization, anti-spam and anti-virus optimization, database tuning, cybersecurity or any type of customized professional services contract, it should not cost your organization (big or small) an arm and a leg, and your complete operating budget, and your children’s tuition. There’s nothing novel about that