InformationWeek recently published its 23rdannual InformationWeek 500 list where Symantec ranked #168. The InformationWeek 500 is an annual listing of the most innovative users of business technology in the U.S.
InformationWeekidentifies and honors the nation's most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing and also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies. The InformationWeek 500 rankings are unique among corporate rankings as it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.
Symantec is keeping good company on the list this year ranking ahead of companies like Microsoft (#241), HP (#222) and Salesforce.com (#171). Companies like EMC, McAfee, NetApp and VMware were on the list as well but not in the top 250 so their ranking was not published.
By placing Symantec on this prestigious list, Information Week recognized Symantec's ground-breaking work on reputation-based security. Symantec's first-of-a-kind reputation-based security system, called Insight, uses the anonymous software adoption patterns of over 175 million users to automatically discover and derive accurate security ratings for every single software file, good or bad, on the planet. This crowd-derived intelligence has proven to be extremely effective at protecting both corporations and home users against the most complex mutated, targeted attacks that evade traditional security technologies.
"Insight is truly a technology that demonstrates Symantec's innovation engine,” said Stephen Trilling, Symantec’s chief technology officer. “This entirely home-grown technology started as a project in our Research Labs and was eventually commercialized by our Security Technology and Response (STAR) organization and delivered to Symantec's hundreds of millions of security customers."
The InformationWeek 500 is open to companies with revenue of $250 million or more. Qualifying companies must complete a rigorous application about their business technology strategies. The process is both quantitative and qualitative, whereby applicants are ranked based on their responses to a questionnaire and are also evaluated based on the innovation they outline in an essay submission. Completed applications are reviewed by a panel of InformationWeek editors, who determine the final ranking.
“For 23 years, the InformationWeek 500 has chronicled and honored the most innovative users of business technology,” said InformationWeek Editor In Chief Rob Preston. “In this day and age, however, being innovative isn’t enough. Companies and their IT organizations need to innovate faster than ever before to stay a step or two ahead of their customers, partners, and competitors. This year’s ranking placed special emphasis on those high-octane business technology innovators.”