New division led by security software industry veterans from Panda and Symantec to focus on aggressive market development and expansion of company’s cloud-based solutions

Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, today announced the formation of a new Cloud Business Unit that will focus on further accelerating worldwide growth around its cloud-based security services for consumers, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) and value-added resellers (VARs). The new unit will build on strong momentum with Panda Cloud Antivirus, the world’s fastest growing consumer cloud security service that exceeded 15 million downloads in its first year on the market. The group will also focus on market development and expansion for Panda Cloud Protection, featuring Panda Cloud Office Protection, Panda Cloud Email Protection and Panda Cloud Internet Protection for SMBs.

Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., the Cloud Business Unit will focus initially on the US market, where Pedro Bustamante, senior research advisor, will oversee consumer market development, and Gary Sevounts, vice president of marketing and Manolo Gonzalez, vice president of sales and operations will head the SMB growth strategy. The new division will collaborate closely with Panda Security USA, based in Orlando, Fl., to support the company’s continued expansion within the United States.

The Panda Cloud Protection product line, which secures endpoints and servers, email and Web threat vectors, has grown well above the industry average growth rate for cloud-based security services. Income from these products grew 65 percent over the previous year and now represents 15 percent of the company’s total worldwide revenues. Panda expects this number to exceed 20 percent by the end of 2011. This compares to industry-wide revenue growth for SaaS, which made up only 10 percent of total security services revenue in 2009, with this figure not projected to surpass 20 percent until 2014, according to market research firm Infonetics.

“Small and medium businesses are looking for security solutions that will protect them from the more than 55,000 new threats created daily, without slowing down their systems or requiring much maintenance,” said Juan Santana, CEO, Panda Security.  “Panda Security’s cloud solutions were designed to address both the needs of SMBs as well as our channel partners who serve them. The world class team we’ve built in Silicon Valley combined with our aggressive go-to-market positions Panda very well to capitalize on the growth opportunity with cloud. The new unit will work very closely with Rick Carlson and his team at Panda USA to further elevate our brand visibility among SMBs and the reseller community.”

About the Leadership Team
Pedro Bustamante began his career at Panda Security in 1997, since which time he has played a critical role in advancing the company’s research and innovation across all product lines.  In addition to directing the go-to-market strategy for Panda Cloud Antivirus, Bustamante will continue to focus on technology innovation across the company’s cloud product portfolio.

Gary Sevounts brings 20 years of expertise in security, systems management and cloud services for both businesses and consumers. He most recently served as senior director, Product Management, Marketing and Business Development at Symantec. Prior to that, he held senior leadership roles in marketing, product management and business development at Symantec, Hewlett-Packard and Quarterdeck. Sevounts holds two patents in Internet security technology.

Manolo Gonzalez brings to Panda Security eighteen years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, sales, marketing, product management and operations at leading companies including Symantec, Intel, Check Point Software and Brightmail. Manolo most recently served as senior director, Telesales, Operations and Service Delivery, CBU at Symantec, where he successfully drove strategy, new market initiatives and execution that generated strong revenue and margin results across multiple groups and organizations.

“Panda Security is well positioned in the United States to take a big piece of the SaaS market with its best-in-class cloud products, support, and channel partner program,” said Rick Carlson, president, Panda Security USA. “The Orlando headquarters will benefit greatly by having a team on the ground in Silicon Valley to elevate the Panda brand even further and build on the strong foundation we already have established with SMBs and their managed service providers.”