Symantec Altiris

Symantec Altiris
Name	Altiris
Fate	Acquired by Symantec
Founded	1998
Founder	Jan Hamilton
Headquarters	Lindon, Utah, United States
Industry	Software

Symantec Altiris is a suite of enterprise systems management and asset-management solutions originally developed by Altiris, Inc., and later integrated into Symantec Corporation. The product line addressed inventory, software distribution, imaging, patch management, and service-desk workflows for large organizations across sectors including finance, healthcare, education, and government. Major customers and partners included multinational corporations, managed service providers, and public institutions deploying large fleets of desktops, notebooks, and servers.

History

Altiris was founded in 1998 in Lindon, Utah during a period of rapid growth in systems management driven by companies such as Microsoft, IBM, HP, Dell Technologies, and Novell. Early milestones included releases that competed with offerings from LANDesk and CA Technologies while integrating with technologies from Intel and AMD. In the 2000s Altiris expanded through partnerships and acquisitions, aligning with standards promoted by groups like the Distributed Management Task Force and vendors such as VMware, Citrix Systems, Oracle Corporation, and Red Hat. In 2007 Altiris was acquired by Symantec, joining other Symantec acquisitions such as PGP Corporation and Veritas Technologies units. Post-acquisition, the product line was coordinated with Symantec initiatives around endpoint protection alongside firms like McAfee and Trend Micro as part of the broader enterprise IT management landscape shaped by cloud entrants including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

Products and Services

The Altiris suite included modules for inventory, imaging, software delivery, patch management, and help-desk automation that paralleled products from Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, IBM Tivoli, and BMC Software offerings. Notable components provided lifecycle management comparable to HP OpenView and SolarWinds tools, and integrated with backup and recovery platforms from Symantec Backup Exec and Veritas NetBackup. Services included professional consulting, managed services through partners like Accenture and Capgemini, and training comparable to vendor programs from Cisco Systems and Oracle University. The portfolio supported cross-platform management for operating systems from Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and Linux distributions including Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Architecture and Components

Altiris architecture centered on a server-based management console, agent-based inventory collectors, and a repository for images and packages, echoing architectural patterns seen in Microsoft and VMware management stacks. Core components included an administrative console, database backend using systems similar to Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle Database, and deployment engines compatible with PXE boot environments and disk-imaging technologies from vendors like Acronis and Symantec Ghost. Integration adapters enabled communication with identity providers such as Active Directory and directory services used by Sun Microsystems and Novell eDirectory. Scalability features paralleled clustering and load-balancing practices found in Apache HTTP Server and Nginx deployments.

Deployment and Management Features

Deployment features encompassed operating system deployment, bare-metal provisioning, package distribution, driver management, and remote control similar to capabilities in TeamViewer and VNC. Management features included software metering, license reconciliation, patch orchestration that interoperated with Microsoft Update and third-party vendor catalogs, and service-desk ticketing comparable to ServiceNow and BMC Remedy. Integration with virtualization platforms from VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V enabled image management for virtual machines, while support for mobile clients anticipated trends led by Apple iOS and Android ecosystems. Reporting capabilities leveraged business intelligence approaches used by SAP and Tableau for capacity planning and compliance dashboards.

Security and Compliance

Security and compliance functionality covered patch management, vulnerability assessment, configuration baselining, and audit trails to address requirements from regulators and standards bodies such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and Sarbanes–Oxley Act. The suite was positioned to complement endpoint protection products from Symantec Endpoint Protection and integrate with identity and access controls employed by Microsoft Active Directory and Okta. For encryption and secure communications, Altiris aligned with practices from OpenSSL implementations and certificate management used by DigiCert and Let's Encrypt. Compliance reporting supported controls relevant to frameworks like NIST and ISO/IEC 27001.

Acquisition and Corporate Integration

Following the 2007 acquisition by Symantec, Altiris components were integrated into Symantec's enterprise offerings alongside acquisitions including Veritas Technologies spin-offs and GuardianEdge. Integration efforts coordinated Altiris capabilities with Symantec divisions responsible for endpoint security, data protection, and managed services, in competition with consolidated vendors such as Microsoft and IBM. Organizational changes reflected industry consolidation trends driven by mergers and investments involving firms like Broadcom and Thoma Bravo, and integrations required alignment with Symantec's partner ecosystem including global systems integrators like Deloitte and KPMG.

Category:Software companies