Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Re: Integrated IDS/IPS/Firewall (Cisco ASA and Juniper ISG)
From: Dave Piscitello <dave () corecom com>
Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 08:07:34 -0400
I believe that open source solutions are also a factor in the consolidation and eventual demise of security as an "industry." By offering a "free" alternative they remove wiggle room from the small start-ups at the bottom of the economy - if you're trying to compete with Symantec or Cisco you get crushed between "huge" on one side and "free" on the other. "Traditional" business customers are going to go with the mega-player because it's the safe bet, while the technically clueful ones will mount an in-house open source-based effort. The net effect is that "free" becomes the enemy of "good" by preventing the small vendor from being able to offer a high-quality low-cost solution.
I can't find the parts of the thread that introduce open source, but this is a fascinating statement and has (at least) as much credibility as "open source will save us". And it has the markings of a good blog entry or short article.
Since private communication with you is always more satisfying (signal over noise), do you think that a "product is free (open source), expertise is a recurring expense" would be an attractive proposition for the same entrepreneurs who would have taken a shot at starting a security company? Most security products fail IMO because they are forced to think on behalf of the unsophisticated user/customer, others fail because the unsophisticated user/customer can't configure and monitor it, or doesn't know what to do with the information gathered from monitoring. The knowledge factor is always discounted - security appliances replace expert staff in budgets - so is there a path where managed security services can be a $40/month expense for small businesses and the resulting security would be better than what those same customers would get by investing $10,000 in security they can't operate.
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- Re: Integrated IDS/IPS/Firewall (Cisco ASA and Juniper ISG) Dave Piscitello (Jun 04)