The agreement includes a commitment to develop unparalleled Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions and Intrusion Protection Systems (IPS), dedicated plans to co-operatively build access control and endpoint compliance solutions, collaboration between Junipers J-Security Team and Symantecs Global Intelligence Network to deliver security and threat research, and participation in co-operative sales and marketing efforts.

Together, Juniper Networks and Symantec aim to redefine the security landscape with a joint approach to meet customer demand for comprehensive, integrated security solutions.

This partnership brings together two very complementary companies focused on both network and endpoint security, says David Passmore, research director at Burton Group. Juniper and Symantec aim to simplify choice for enterprises looking to purchase high-performance network security solutions that scale, and reduce the complexity involved in assembling solutions for endpoint compliance.

 Juniper and Symantec will dedicate engineering resources to enhance Junipers Unified Threat Management (UTM) and Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) products. Junipers Integrated Security Platforms will include Symantecs security content, including its anti-spam, IDS/IPS signatures and vulnerability information and research in the near term.

Longer term, the companies say that they will collaborate on the inclusion of anti-virus and threat protection. By expanding the support for Symantec content on Juniper devices, customers will benefit from simplified network topologies in the form of less devices (especially in branch environments) and the integration of security and networking capabilities, the companies say.