May 12, 2005 - (HOSTSEARCH.COM) - In a press release today, Internet Security Systems outlined enhancements and best practices of the ISS Proventia Enterprise Security Platform (ESP) during the company's annual Financial Analyst Day event. Unfortunately, the plan for a web hosting provider to secure themselves seems to be “get rid of all security products and buy only from ISS.”
"For years, Internet threats have been growing in type, sophistication, speed and viciousness," said Tom Noonan, chairman, president and chief executive officer at ISS. "Traditionally, IT professionals have sought new equipment to handle each emerging type of threat, but enterprise security is consolidating and today's enterprises are demanding preemptive security solutions on a single platform. Over the last decade, we have demonstrated that security is an ongoing, vigilant process. Today, we celebrate ISS' success and outline initiatives that will continue this momentum through the remainder of 2005."
Tom Noonan, ISS' chairman, president and CEO outlined the company's strategy to expand Proventia ESP as ISS claims enterprises are looking to consolidate their security with a single solutions provider.
While Mr. Noonan seems well founded in his argument that Internet threats are growing in scope and sophistication it is hard to believe that “consolidating” or jettisoning all existing security products and then relying solely on one company’s security platform is a good strategic roadmap for security. Perhaps most companies would like security to be simple and cheap and go through one security provider but given the nature of Internet security it seems risky to rely on one provider and their security model alone.
While Greg Adams, ISS' vice president of product management introduced over a dozen new products and features scheduled for release during the next 12 months which is commendable it would seem to behoove the company to encourage collaborative and multi-layered security and a product line that can integrate with other third-party security products rather than taking a hard line Microsoft-like approach. Even Microsoft is starting to soften its stance towards open source.
Chris Rouland, ISS' CTO presented a view into the future of security, including the technology roadmap for 100 gigabit intrusion prevention. Unfortunately however, they didn’t go any farther than mentioning that they have a strategy in their press release. It would be lovely to know what their vision of the future is.
