Symantec Pacific channel and alliances senior director, Klasie Holtzhausen (left), with Asia Pacific and Japan senior vice president, Adrian Jones (right)
Symantec’s Sydney office has undergone a significant transformation with the opening of a Security Operations Centre (SOC), and its influence is expected to extend to all of Asia Pacific.
As for whether other offices are in line for this type of transformation, Symantec Asia Pacific and Japan senior vice president, Adrian Jones, said the change will likely not be as big.
“We have a lot of offices around Asia Pacific, and there are always leases coming up, buildings to change, and potential to consolidate people under one roof,” he said.
“We’re looking at a lot of those offices across the region, but they will probably not change at this magnitude.”
As for why the Sydney office changed so much, Jones said the premise was not to create “just an employee office,” but also to include a SOC that covers all of Asia.
While Symantec has SOCs in Japan and India, Jones said they are smaller than the Sydney one, which has now become the security vendor’s Asia hub from a SOC perspective.
“The investment in the Sydney office needed to be here, and there will be more, smaller investments across the region, but not in the same magnitude,” Jones said.
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Support beyond Australia
Not only will the Sydney SOC play a bigger role in Asia Pacific, but also in Japan and India where there are local SOCs.
One day prior to the Sydney SOC launch, members from the Japanese SOC visited the facility to do more training in preparation for further collaboration with the Australian team.
With the time difference between Australia and Japan, Jones said there are times in the day when the Japanese team will take over some aspects of the SOC operation, and the Sydney team will do the same.
“We have staff that speak more languages, and you can find that more in Sydney than in other regions due to its demographics,” he said.
Although Symantec splits its operation between Asia Pacific and Japan, Jones said the Sydney SOC will be used more by Japan as the customer base expands there.
“As we get more customers in Asia Pacific and Japan, the Sydney office will become more of an operation hub for all of the SOCs we have across the region,” he said.
Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.
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