IT Management tools vendor Altiris has detailed its product roadmap, following its acquisition by security specialist Symantec at the beginning of this year.

The firm plans to ramp up its current contribution to the overall company's revenue, according to Altiris European general manager Ed Reilly.

"We're looking to leverage the key strengths Symantec has at the endpoint and use the Altiris platform as a platform to bring these solutions to the marketplace," he explained.

Reilly added that the firm is in a good position to cash in on the desire among chief information officers to combine management and security capabilities and reduce the number of vendors they deal with.

On the product front, 2008 will see the release of Altiris 7.0, which will feature tighter integration with Symantec products and enhanced asset management capabilities, said Reilly. This is expected to be released mid-year.

"It will see better scalability of the product set and new features helping us to compete in the software product recognition and inventory approach," he added.

Also in the future, Symantec's Ghost imaging product will replace Altiris' own image format product, while the former's pcAnywhere remote control offering will replace the Altiris Carbon Copy solution. But Symantec's LiveState solution will be phased out and customers upgraded to the Altiris Client Manager Suite in time, Reilly explained.

Symantec will also launch a new endpoint security solution with Altiris in the next fortnight, he said.