CUPERTINO, CA, Aug 21, 2006 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced the immediate availability of Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator 6.0, which extends the basic search functionality of the Symantec Enterprise Vault(TM) e-mail and file archiving software to help businesses and government organizations reduce the burden and costs associated with the collection, preservation, search, and production of e-mail and other electronic records. Discovery Accelerator 6.0 has been developed specifically to help customers comply with e-discovery requirements established by amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1, 2006.

Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator 6.0 is one component of the new Symantec Messaging Retention and Discovery program, a unique combination of products and services that also includes:

-- A records retention and e-discovery preparedness consulting services relationship with leading e-discovery law firm Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner LLP;

-- An integrated software and services partnership with RenewData Corp. to restore and migrate historical data from backup tapes and legacy archives to a single searchable archive;

-- A technology partner program to facilitate integration of popular legal software tools with Symantec Enterprise Vault and Discovery Accelerator 6.0 through open APIs.

"Organizations across all industries will have to revamp their e-discovery strategies to comply with the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," said Francis deSouza, vice president of Enterprise Messaging Management solutions, Symantec. "IT departments need to prepare for strict requirements around the preservation of data prior to and during litigation mindful of the sanctions and fines that can result from poor procedures. The Symantec Messaging Retention and Discovery program provides our customers with software and services to help fulfill their legal obligation and significantly reduces the time and costs of doing so."

Symantec Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator 6.0

Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator 6.0 allows corporate legal departments to search Enterprise Vault archives in response to litigation matters or investigations. The enhancements in Discovery Accelerator 6.0 were specifically targeted to address upcoming amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which will codify requirements for companies producing electronic evidence, such as e-mail or instant messages, in lawsuits.

One significant provision demands the preservation of data during the course of litigation, commonly referred to as the legal hold requirement. Discovery Accelerator 6.0 enables the creation of automated legal holds, ensuring all e-mails, instant messages, files and other content relevant to a specific case (or cases) are not deleted as part of an organization's standard records retention and deletion schedule. Discovery Accelerator selectively holds relevant data without requiring an entire organization's dataset to be put on hold -- and without requiring manual effort for end-users. Additionally, Discovery Accelerator 6.0 features enhanced federated search capabilities and an ability to produce e-mail, IM, files, and other content in their native formats, also a requirement of the Federal Rules changes.

"Symantec Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator ensures our public records are securely retained and easily retrievable," said Robert Taylor, chief information officer for Fulton County, Georgia and Discovery Accelerator 6.0 beta program participant. "Prior to implementing Symantec Enterprise Vault and Symantec Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator in 2003, fulfilling one request would require several employees to spend days, or even weeks, searching backup tapes for specific records. Now the entire discovery process can be managed by one IT administrator in a matter of just a few hours."

Litigation Readiness and Policy Consulting

Symantec's Messaging Retention and Discovery program also includes a strategic relationship with the law firm Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner LLP (www.rdrw.com), a recognized leader in partnering with clients to reduce the legal risk and cost of e-discovery and e-records compliance. This relationship includes service offerings specifically designed to provide Symantec customers with expert guidance on developing a litigation response strategy, including a practical and legally defensible legal hold process, a legacy media review process, and enterprise record retention policies and procedures.

"Organizations face tremendous risk and cost in dealing with electronic records in litigation and regulatory investigations," according to M. James Daley, one of the founding partners of Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner LLP. "Now, more than ever, they need a legally defensible legal hold process and reasonable record retention policy to comply with legal obligations, including the new federal e-discovery rules."

Historical Data Recovery and Migration

In addition, Symantec has partnered with RenewData (www.renewdata.com), a provider of information governance software and electronic evidence services, to help customers gather historical data off backup tapes and legacy e-mail archives and migrate that data into the Enterprise Vault archive. Customers have depended on Enterprise Vault to manage all e-mail and content going forward; now they can ensure that legacy content is stored and is searchable in the same repository.

E-Discovery Partner Program

Finally, Symantec launched its E-Discovery Partner Program to provide APIs for Enterprise Vault and Discovery Accelerator to leading third-party legal software and e-mail analysis vendors. Customers whose inside or outside counsel use these tools will be able to quickly and easily pass data from Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator to their preferred tools. Early participants in the program include Clearwell Systems, Inc. (www.clearwellsystems.com), CT Summation (www.ctsummation.com), Ibis Consulting, Inc. (www.ibisconsulting.com) and MetaLINCS (www.metalincs.com).

According to the Enterprise Strategy Group, a leading IT analyst firm, of those organizations that have been through an electronic discovery in the past 12 months, more than 75 percent have been forced to produce e-mail as part of the discovery process.

"E-mail can be a treasure chest of evidence and organizations still struggle to manage it during the discovery process. Symantec's E-Discovery Program takes a unique approach of combining technology and services to help its customers during the entire lifecycle of a legal matter involving e-mail," said Brian Babineau, an analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. "This announcement speaks to Symantec's keen understanding of the evolution of electronic discovery and the need to incorporate historical and new data as well as preparing e-mails to be culled in specific, well established litigation support software."

Symantec Enterprise Messaging Management

Symantec is the first company to deliver comprehensive, end-to-end Enterprise Messaging Management capabilities, keeping messaging systems and data both secure and readily available. Symantec Enterprise Messaging Management provides industry-leading products and services designed to help eliminate unnecessary costs by reducing large volumes of unwanted spam, stopping viruses and worms, filtering sensitive content from leaving the organization, automatically managing the lifecycle of messages through archiving, and by helping to keep customers' communications infrastructures resilient against failure.

About Symantec

Symantec is the world leader in providing solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the security, availability, and integrity of their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

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Symantec Corporation
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SOURCE: Symantec

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