Symantec team moves house as HCL and Broadcom double down on partnership

Multinational IT services and consulting provider HCL Technologies and semiconductor and software vendor Broadcom have doubled down on a partnership first struck in 2018, in a move that effectively sees the latter's Symantec enterprise consulting contingent change hands.

Broadcom, based in the US, and India's HCL Technologies first announced a global preferred services partnership agreement in late 2018.

The deal saw HCL become the preferred services partner for Broadcom's enterprise software products, providing professional services, education and training services, while giving Broadcom customers access to HCL's expertise across consulting, implementation, upgrade and support services.

Now, with the expansion of that partnership, HCL will broaden its professional services offerings to include Symantec Enterprise Division (SED) consulting services, which was part of Broadcom's enterprise security solutions. As part of the partnership, the majority of Broadcom’s Symantec enterprise consulting team will transition to HCL. 

This includes employees across the business's endpoint security, web security services, cloud security and data loss prevention. Symantec enterprise consulting employees will also join HCL's Enterprise Studio, which provides professional services for Broadcom Enterprise Software solutions. 

However, the Symantec US Federal Consulting Services and Cyber Threat Analysis Programs will remain with the Symantec Enterprise Division of Broadcom.

"The enhanced partnership with Broadcom combined with HCL's rich legacy in cyber security will help our customers establish a secure environment to further explore and pursue their enterprise growth objectives," HCL senior vice president Abhishek Shankar said.

Cyber security vendor Symantec confirmed the sale of its enterprise security assets to Broadcom in August 2019, as part of a US$10.7 billion deal. By November the same year, it emerged that Symantec staff across Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong had left, or were in the process of leaving, the company as part of a worldwide sweep of redundancies.  

Broadcom later sold off Symantec's cyber security services business, including the security vendor's threat detection and incident response capabilities, to consulting firm Accenture. 

For Broadcom Symantec Enterprise Division senior vice president Art Gilliland, the new arrangement between HCL and Broadcom represents the next phase of a "successful relationship" between the two companies, built on HCL's proven professional services model and their Enterprise Studio offering.

"This agreement will provide Broadcom customers the expertise and services needed to ensure their mission-critical infrastructure software needs are met," Gilliland said.

The partnership expansion comes as HCL unveils plans to acquire self-optimising network (SON) technology from Cisco to enhance in-market 5G capabilities.

Terms of the all-cash transaction -- valued at US$49 million -- will see the India-based global system integrator (GSI) assume control of products and services built on Cisco's SON offering, in addition to employees currently working on the technology.