The consolidated perimeter platform continues to subsume additional security and networking functions, making top flight content security and application acceleration the next frontier – further squeezing pure-play security players. This accelerates consolidation in the sector, keeping perimeter architectures in flux. Customers increasingly embrace integrated solutions from larger players putting a “best of breed” mindset on life support and proving that “big is the new small.” The first open source perimeter platforms also hit in 2007, providing a legitimate alternative for technically savvy, mid-sized businesses.

Last year, the perimeter Incite was all about “no mas box” since device sprawl had gotten to an unmanageable state. Not that we are past that problem yet, but every network security vendor offers a UTM (unified threat management) options nowadays. So if you still have multiple boxes in your external perimeter, that’s a choice.

Also to indulge my friend Chris Hoff, I’ll also support his contention about the multiplying of "perimeters" that are smaller in diameter and closer to the computing resources. That’s why I’ll do my best to refer to the “big” perimeter as EXTERNAL PERIMETER (EP), and other perimeters in the context they are used.

So what’s next on the external perimeter? Basically we’ll see two areas of focus. The first is continuing to add more functionality to the boxes. That means additional networking capabilities. Things like application acceleration and maybe load balancing, etc. It'll depend on the size and scale of your organization whether it makes sense to put all that stuff in one box.

This kind of integrated functionality grab favors the big, as opposed to the small, vendors. So we’ll continue to see consolidation, which I'm sure is a shocker. The investment bankers will stay busy in 2007.

What about “best of breed?” Basically best of breed is all about early markets. No one can tell me with a straight face that their firewall is demonstrably better than anyone else’s. I guess they can, but they’d be lying. As markets mature, technical differentiation is a myth and so is “best of breed.” Now as the EP platform adds new capabilities, there is an opportunity to differentiate, but not really on FW, VPN, IPS, even web filtering or anti-spam anymore.

I also expect open source to have an impact on this space. Folks like Barracuda, Astaro and others, that take a largely open source platform and add a bit of pixie dust (usually at the interface level) will continue to provide a legitimate alternative to proprietary offerings.

External perimeter protection is a commodity. Act accordingly.