Darren Thomson is Symantec’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the EMEA region. He holds the most senior technical position in the region and works within Symantec EMEA Technical Sales Organization (TSO).

As I meet Symantec customers and partners to talk about some of the impacts that virtualization, mobile and cloud computing are having on their businesses, I hear time and time again about the importance of information and about the fact that the governance and security policy that surrounds information will be key to ensuring successful transitions to new computing and service delivery models. In almost every case, though, the organisation that I am speaking to is (fundamentally) struggling with the same problem: “Where on earth do I start with all of this?” I hear a lot of potential answers to this question ("data...

Application virtualization is a great way to run non-native programmes on your computer, or to test unstable software versions without putting your computer at risk. Now, thanks to a bit of software made by Adam Moore from University of California, Merced, using a virtualized application can be even faster and easier than it was before.

Adam’s software is called Shortcut Creator v.1.2. It allows you to create as many shortcuts as you want for programmes that run on layers created with SVS (Software Virtualization Solution). When you select the shortcut, it activates the particular layer that you have chosen. If...

As I've struggled my way through this last week on jet lag, limited sleep and caffeine at Symantec's Worldwide Sales and Marketing Conference, two things have struck me. The first is that Backup Exec has a special place in a lot of peoples' hearts. Its roots can be traced back around 30 years and there is a very real passion among the sales force and pre-sales groups in Symantec, within the channel partner community and among our customers too. We brought themed "Backup Exec Boot Camp" t-shirts and hats to the conference as prizes and throughout the week more and more employees and partners were wearing them - through their own choice. Supporters if you like, but certainly a very loyal following that’s prepared to shout about it from the rooftops. If you want to get one for yourself, look out for the regional Boot Camps we're going to be running...

It’s a classic nightmare scenario, but one that quite a few of us have faced over the years: loss of crucial data due to an error, failure or worse. To help combat that sinking feeling, the only realistic solution is to ensure that your data is backed up on a regular basis. There are lots of tools out there to help you do this, but we’re going to look at the specific example of Backup Exec 2010. This useful and powerful piece of software will help to allay any fears that a crash or mistake will result in hours of lost time - or gigabytes of lost data...