Security is just another brick in the wall

It's interesting that I am always stumbling across interesting non-security perspectives that are very relevant to our little corner of the world. In this post (here), by Seth Godin - he basically says there are three ways to gain more market share. First, get new customers by having them switch from the competition. Second, grow the market (by having new customers adopt your stuff). Finally you need to keep your existing customers from leaving, which is a commonly overlooked aspect of growing market share.

But what tactics can be used to achieve these ends? Again, Godin has great perspective on this. One path (another brick in the wall) has you adding more capabilities to an existing platform, and over time customers will get adopt the product if only not to have to continue integrating. The second is a true innovation, which would make switching too painful for customers, so they've got no choice.

So what? In the security space, we can certainly come up with examples of true innovation. SSL VPN is a good data point. It's so much harder to manage an IPSec environment, that most customers have moved to SSL VPNs. Vendors figured that out and started supplementing their existing IPSec boxes with easier to use technology to stop the bleeding. But bleed they did.

I'm betting we see a similar (but much larger) adoption of security switches over the next 5-7 years. As volumes kick up, there won't be much of a pricing distinction between security-aware switches and traditional Layer 3 gear and the pain of having to overlay and integrate access control into the campus will drive folks to overhaul their campus.

But those examples are few and far between. For the most part, Big Security has just continued adding stuff until the best of breed provider has no where to go - but away. Or into the arms of a big acquirer (ISS anyone?). UTM is very much about that nowadays. Sure there are some folks that choose best of breed because they are gluttons for punishment, but in the lower ends of the market and the larger enterprises where they have better stuff to do - for the most part they are looking at UTM boxes to provide better integration - so the customer doesn't have to.

So as you look to figure out what your security architecture looks like ahead of every budget cycle, keep in mind that all in all you're just another brick in the wall.