Symantec Dissolves Alliance with Huawei of China
SAN FRANCISCO — Less than four years after Huawei Technologies and Symantec teamed up to develop computer network security products, the joint venture is being dismantled because Symantec feared the alliance with the Chinese company …
Context & Ripple Effects
Symantec is dismantling a security-products venture formed with Huawei fewer than four years earlier, after a period in which Symantec also disclosed stolen source code and agreed to buy mobile-management firm Nukona. The breakup puts partner selection and control of security technology at the center of Symantec's product strategy.
Huawei loses a Western security-software partner as it builds network-security products, while Symantec's earlier exit from the Sygate firewall business shows the company has previously reshaped its security portfolio.
First-order effects
- Symantec and Huawei must unwind their shared security-products operation, ending the venture as a route for jointly developed offerings.
- Customers and channel partners attached to the venture face a transition to whichever products and support arrangements the two companies retain separately.
Second-order effects
- Huawei must replace the Symantec relationship or rely more heavily on its own security-product development, while Symantec must serve relevant enterprise-security demand without the joint venture.
- The split raises the value of explicit technology-control, support, and data-governance terms for vendors considering cross-border security partnerships.
Third-order effects
- If security suppliers increasingly treat partner trust as a product-risk issue, cross-border security alliances will favor structures with clearer separation of technology, operations, and customer support.
The trend: Enterprise-security partnerships are becoming as dependent on trust and technology control as on the products the partners can jointly build.