At the annual Vision conference here for users of the former Veritas Software Corp., Symantec unveiled Data Center Foundation, which the company said will one day fully integrate the different tools it inherited when it acquired Veritas last July.

Officials from Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec wouldn't comment on when the common integration platform will be completed. The company did say that "elements" of the technology have been deployed in some of its products and that integration features will be added gradually as new versions of its storage and server products are released in the coming months.

Over time, Symantec added, Data Center Foundation will provide users with consistent installation processes, user interfaces, workflows and license management policies.

"It's Utopia for me," said Brad Wood, senior director of enterprise technology at Corrections Corp. in Nashville, a private operator of prisons under government contracts.

Wood said the company already uses most of the storage products included in the Data Center Foundation blueprint. But, he said, "being able to see it under one business unit now, and the connections and its future - it's huge."