Tibco And LogLogic: An Interesting and Revealing Acquisition

Over the past few years, a number of independent Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) vendors were acquired by bigger players.  In late 2010, HP scooped up market leader ArcSight for $1.5 billion.  Last year, McAfee purchased Nitro Security while IBM acquired Q1 Labs.

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Final Thoughts About Interop

Well I've been out of Las Vegas for several days now so I've had time to adjust back to normal society and reflect a bit more on Interop2012.  My colleague Bob "LAN" Laliberte met with nearly everyone in the industry and while I don't remember every encounter, here are a few final thoughts:

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All Things Interop Part 1

I'm here in Las Vegas wrapping up Interop 2012.  I now understand why Hunter S. Thompson binged on alcohol and narcotics when visiting this town -- you need these substances to create the illusion that this town is the least bit palatable. 

Aside from the Sin City aspect, Interop was eventful and the industry seems to be in good shape.  A few thoughts:

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On to Interop 2012: BYOD, Cloud, SDN, slot machines, and roulette

I'll be on an airplane in a few hours bound for Las Vegas and Interop 2012. Here's what I'm expecting at the show:

1.  SDN, the sequel. With the Open Networking Summit (ONS) last month and Interop this week, software-defined networking is the gift that keeps on giving. Interop will feature an OpenFlow plug-fest and lots of rhetoric. What I'm looking for, however, are real use cases, mature products, and actual implementation. I'd like to see an SDN-based data center fabric for example -- perhaps IBM and NEC will have something to show. 

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CISO Observations at an IBM Security Event

Earlier this week, I participated in an IBM event in NYC that was organized and hosted by the new IBM security division.  There were around 40-50 security executives present from all industries and the topics of conversation ranged from mobile device security to the cooperative relationship between security and business executives. 

When you participate in an event with this type of an elite group, you can't help but learn a few things.  Here are a few of my observations:

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CISPA = CYA

While cybersecurity legislative generally proceeds at a torpid pace, the U.S. House of Representatives actually passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) last week. The bill now proceeds to the Senate and may end up on the President's desk.

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Hacktivism and Cyber Crime Pose The Biggest Threat to Enterprise Organizations

With all of the cybersecurity legislation activity in Washington, GAO Director of Information Security Issues, Gregory Wilshusen, testified before the Homeland Security Committee in the House of Representatives this week.  Director Wilshusen described sources of cyber threats including botnet operators, criminal groups, hackers, insiders, and nations. 

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My Take On Security IPOs

Splunk (SPLK) went public this week and both Infoblox and Palo Alto Networks will soon follow.  This could be the start of a security IPO run moving forward.  Why?  Status quosecurity defenses aren't working so there is a burgeoning market for next-generation security technologies.  This market opportunity has driven M&A activities for years but we've recently seen far broader interest in security.  HP grabbed ArcSight and started a security business unit.  IBM acquired Q1 Labs and did the same.  Dell purchased SecureWorks and SonicWall.

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We Need Security Standards like Mitre's Common Event Expression (CEE)

Over the past few years, I've been involved with a number of ESG Research projects all pointing to a few common problems.  Even in the most sophisticated shops, security teams struggle to collect the avalanche of security data generated from different log files and tools, analyze this data in a proactive manner, or find the proverbial needle in the haystack indicating anomalous behavior. 

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Document-based Security Standards: The Time is Now

I first heard the term de-perimeterization years ago from my friends at the Jericho Forum, a UK-based organization of security professionals.  Back then the focus was on securing IT when it crossed organizational boundaries.  In other words, a highly-secure network perimeter offers little protection if my business applications, services, and sensitive data are consumed by users working at other organizations, with different security policies and controls, residing outside the firewall.

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What I Like About HP's Virtual Application Network (VAN) Announcement

Pity poor legacy networks.  There's a tremendous amount of change going on with everything that connects to networks -- mobile devices, virtual hosts, cloud computing applications-- but networks have remained static, inflexible and technically esoteric.  This dichotomy leads to a situation that ESG calls "network discontinuity," legacy networks just can't keep up with modern business and technical requirements.

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More Thoughts on Software-Defined Networking

In preparation for the Open Networking Summit (ONS) in a few weeks, ESG networking guru Bob Laliberte and I have been talking to networking vendors, end users, VCs, even actual OpenFlow shops.  Here's what I'm thinking at this point.

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Endpoint Security: The Next Generation

When you mention endpoint security in conversation, it's not unusual to get some type of visceral response -- eyes rolling, sighs, etc.  Security professionals and the industry at large think of endpoint security as a commodity or "necessary evil."  Some of my fellow analysts have gone so far to say that endpoint security as a category is dead (that's an old analyst trick for declaring that you've come up with some new model). 

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Mobile Device Security Reality

You've heard the same things I have:  "You can't control mobile device proliferation."  "Most large organizations are being forced to create BYOD programs."  "You need to let new employees work with their own devices and use social networking sites if you want to recruit them."

Poppycock, Rubbish, Nonsense, I say.

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Anticipating the Open Networking Summit

We are a few weeks away from the Open Networking Summit (www.opennetsummit.org) which will be held in Santa Clara April 16 through 18. 

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Cybersecurity Bill Soap Opera

It's been about a month since I last blogged about cybersecurity legislation so here's a brief review of where we stand. 

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It's Time For An Enterprise Encryption Strategy

A few years ago, I began writing and talking about data encryption management problems on the horizon.  I was right about the issues but a bit aggressive on the timing.  Based on what I'm seeing lately however, the encryption management sky may finally be falling (or at least starting to fall).

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The Many Synergies of Dell's Acquisition of SonicWall

You have to give Dell a lot of credit.  As the company recognized changes in the industry, it was willing to move beyond efficient PC/server manufacturing and distribution into new technologies and labor-intensive services.  In my domain, this led to the acquisition of SecureWorks and Force10.  Today, Dell took another step into end-to-end solutions by grabbing security veteran SonicWall. 

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Final Thoughts on the RSA Conference 2012

Okay, it's been a week since the RSA Security Conference 2012 so my window of opportunity for editorial comment is nearly closed.  A few last thoughts:

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RSA Observations Part II

I missed the keynotes at RSA as I was buried with wall-to-wall meetings from the time I arrived on Monday through Thursday evening.  Nevertheless, I had to chance to speak with a lot of security industry insiders and IT security professionals during my time at RSA.  Building on my previous blog, here are a few additional take-aways:

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