Ho Ho Hopefully you are enjoying this holiday season, wherever you are. Maybe it's time to return some gifts or just kick back a bit or maybe even poke ol' Mikey in the eye a bit about the next two Incites...
Incite #3 - Perimeter (R)Evolution
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.
Days of Incite Link:http://securityincite.com/blog/mike-rothman/2007-doi-day-3-perimeter-r-evolution [0]
Incite Redux Link:http://securityincite.com/blog/mike-rothman/incite-redux-july-10-2007 [0]
Final grade: A
Gosh, if only I could pick stocks as well as come up with Incites. This is another that is right on the money, although in hindsight - very obvious. Some may think that putting all this stuff in a single box creates security issues, but the reality is there is a VERY compelling economic justification for collapsing all of these perimeter defense activities into a single platform.
Given that security doesn’t really help to make more money, if there is any way for us to contribute to saving a few shekels – that is all good. Now what about content security? It’s in there. Pretty much every UTM platform has some type of anti-spam capability and web filtering too. A bit of a miss was this application acceleration theme, but it’s still pretty early for function. As it matures, it will be subsumed into the UTM platform as well.
Specifically in the case of anti-spam, is it good enough? Do you need a dedicated platform to scan some mail? The answer is probably not. Given that bigger companies that also have perimeter defense platforms have acquired most of the messaging security specialists, it’s not like a lot of the technology that shows up on this integrated platform wasn’t stand-alone at some point.
So big is the new small and given the continued consolidation that almost everyone is predicting for 2008, the best of breed mindset is definitely on the endangered species list. But it has been for a while, this is nothing new.
What about open-source? It’s clearly making an impact. The underlying technologies, including IPTables, Snort, OpenVPN, Spam Assassin, et al, are robust and mature. There are a bunch of companies (Astaro, Untangle, StillSecure/Cobia) that build wrappers around these technologies to make it easier for customers to implement. Sure these vendors do a little more than package the open-source distribution – but the reality is the existing perimeter players will need to step up their game in 2008 because the value gap is not enough to justify big pricing differentials anymore beyond these open-source alternatives.
Check out the other posts in the Report Card series [0].