[Symantec Corp. today announced that the company will preview the pilot release of Project Guru at the DEMO 2009 conference taking place March 1-3 in Palm Desert, Calif. Project Guru is a secure, Web-based service that enables tech savvy individuals to provide remote support for friends and family. This is the third consecutive year that a Symantec innovation has been chosen for demonstration at the prestigious DEMO conference.
Emerging technologies and new products introduced at DEMO conferences are hand-selected by a select panel of industry influencers. To be selected to show at DEMO, technologies and new products must make a significant contribution to the state of the art in its target market, change the dynamics of the marketplace into which it is introduced, and be backed by a management team capable of delivering the product to market.
“While there are many services available to consumers for technical support, many tech savvy individuals still find themselves as the de facto support resource for friends and family,” said Brian Hernacki, architect, Symantec. “Our goal with Project Guru is to provide tech savvy users with a convenient, secure online tool from a trusted source to help their friends and family efficiently and effectively.”
The Project Guru pilot provides individuals with a secure, scalable Web-based environment that enables users to provide remote technical support without the need to spend a lot of time on the phone or visiting in person. The pilot service enables secure remote desktop connections leveraging the same internally developed technology as Symantec’s Software as a Service (SaaS) Online Remote Access offering. Project Guru is complementary to Symantec’s NortonLive™ PC help services, which provide consumers who need immediate PC help with a direct, convenient, affordable and simple way to maintain and fix their PCs by calling a NortonLive expert 24/7.
To administer remote support using Project Guru, users sign up as a “Guru” by creating an online account and inviting friends and family members to join in their circle. Once the invitation has been accepted by a friend or family member and the minimal set up requirements are complete, the Guru can connect remotely to the system to troubleshoot and correct issues using the Project Guru online tools. Remote connections between the two systems are secured via encryption and authentication. The Project Guru pilot currently includes diagnostic tools for network monitoring and identifying the software installed on the remote system to aid the Guru in efficiently fixing computer problems for friends and family.
Project Guru is currently in pilot release with select partners. A pilot release for customers to provide feedback to assist in the ongoing development and advancement of Project Guru is planned for the second half of 2009.]
Source : Symantec Press Releases
