Score one for IT security after Symantec yesterday announced first-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s estimates, and shares surged as a result.

While net income dropped 5.3 percent to $95.2 million, sales jumped 11 percent to $1.4 billion at Symantec, which is getting in on the services game big time. Revenue from security and data management solutions accounted for 30 percent of total revenue and increased 4 percent compared to the same quarter in 2006.

While great earnings do not necessarily forebode an IT security stock rally, it does bode well for the vendors themselves.

“I don’t know of a single thing in IT that does not have security somewhere in their RFP,” analyst Eric Ogren of the The Ogren Group, told me today. “I think it’s a healthy time to be in the security space.”

And, judging from the nearly 10 percent gain in Symantec’s share price after the news was announced, it’s not a shabby time to be a Big Yellow investor either.