2009年10月12日星期一

Time to throw all your security in one box?



Matocha Associates' IT shop found it's easier to manage two multi-purpose security appliances when you're only dealing with one vendor per box. Its firewall , VPN, intrusion detection and gateway antivirus tools sit in one appliance from SonicWALL. The Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based company uses another from Trend Micro for Web, e-mail and spam filtering, plus additional antivirus protection.


Keeping it to two large vendors means the company doesn't have to scramble to figure out what technology needs upgrading and which vendor needs to take care of it, IT director Jeffrey Jarzabek said. It's also more cost-efficient to keep the vendor count low.


Would Jarzabek ever consider cramming devices from several different vendors into one appliance? Not anytime soon.


"This would be like having a BMW with a Mercedes interior and Audi exterior," Jarzabek, whose firm specializes in architecture, engineering, general contracting and construction management, said in an e-mail interview. "It isn't going to happen because it's not cost effective and it isn't reliable. This is the solution: one appliance, one vendor; another appliance, another vendor."


If a new survey from New York-based research firm TheInfoPro Inc. is any indication, Jarzabek's skepticism is not universal. A majority of IT professionals the firm interviewed in March and April said they would like to have one appliance that incorporates the functions of multiple vendors. Regardless of how many vendors are in one box, the survey makes this much clear: More enterprise IT departments are thinking about using multi-faceted appliances than they were a year ago.


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"Appliances are maturing and are getting easier to use," said Myron Kerstetter, senior vice president of TheInfoPro Inc. "The message of the survey is that because of this maturity, more people are considering acquiring an appliance than in the past."


TheInfoPro (TIP) interviewed 102 enterprise IT professionals across a variety of industries on behalf of San Jose, Calif.-based Secure Computing. The firm used enterprises that belong to its TIPNetwork as a primary source of contacts. Respondents were not told that Secure Computing was involved in the study. In many cases, Kerstetter said he spoke with people who don't have an appliance right now. But among them, he said, "There seems to be a strong interest."


Among the findings:


Almost 50% of respondents indicated "more" or "much more" interest in multi-function security appliances compared to a year ago.


A majority of respondents -- 55% -- said they'd prefer that functions on a single security appliance be from more than one vendor. Another 31% prefer that all functions come from one vendor while another 14% were neutral.


More than 60% voiced some or serious consideration about using a security appliance for multiple security functions; another 10% already do or plan to.


More than 70% rated a single management interface, integrated reports and lower costs as somewhat or very important factors in a security appliance.


Most were not concerned about using fewer security vendors. Just over a third said it is somewhat or very important to use fewer.


A "very large majority" of enterprises use more than a single vendor of information security products. Forty-two percent use six to 10 vendors; 40% use five vendors or less.


Less than 20% had definite plans to decrease the number of security vendors they use; another 15% said they might decrease their number.




Having that many vendors is not beneficial to the bottom line… How is the management of them going? Not good? I didn't think so!


Jeffrey Jarzabek


IT Director, Matocha Associates




Noting that 42% of respondents said they use six or more vendors and that 66% said they won't reduce the number of vendors they how have, Jarzabek said, "Having that many vendors is not beneficial to the bottom line… How is the management of them going? Not good? I didn't think so!"


Skeptics of all-in-one appliances have argued the machines aren't as simple as they appear on the outside. What's an IT practitioner to do when a glitch crops up in such an all-encompassing machine? Critics say it's much more difficult to address the problem when the affected software is buried in the belly of a big appliance.


But Kerstetter said that concern appears to be easing. One analogy is that in the old days, an IT administrator would need a hard hat and screwdriver to fix something run amuck within an appliance. Now, Kerstetter said, "Technology has matured and fixing a problem is as easy as pressing a button and rebooting."


Paul DeBernarbi, director of product marketing for Secure Computing , agreed. "The technology has caught up with demand," he said. "Today's hardware and software is such that you can have one platform that can deliver on multiple needs."




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2009年10月11日星期日

McAfee sued for patent infringement

Antivirus vendor McAfee Inc . is being sued by Dallas-based security firm DeepNines Inc. because of alleged patent infringement and false product marking.


DeepNines said it was issued U.S. patent number 7,058,976 in June for its Security Edge Platform (SEP), a unified threat management product that integrates firewall, behavior- and signature-based intrusion detection (IDS) and prevention (IPS), antivirus and traffic management into a single device.


But, DeepNines claims, Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee has been marking and selling about nine separate products that claim the patent as its own, including McAfee IntruShield and Total Protection, which the vendor released in April to much fanfare.


As a result, DeepNines is seeking damages and a permanent injunction to prevent McAfee from marketing and selling the infringing products, company president Dan Jackson said in a phone interview Thursday morning. Law firm Fish & Richardson P.C. is representing DeepNines, and the lawsuit has been filed in United States District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.


"We intend to protect our intellectual property, just as we respect the intellectual property rights of others" he said. "Although DeepNines continuously monitors the products of its competitors, at this point, our focus remains on McAfee for both infringing our patent and falsely marking its products with a patent that is invalid and purports to claim the same invention covered by our patent."


Jackson would not specify what damages his company is seeking. DeepNines was founded in 1999 and claims to have more than 200 product installations across industries such as financial services, education, energy and government.


McAfee spokesperson Siobhan MacDermott declined to offer a detailed response about the lawsuit because she had not yet seen a copy of the full document. She did note that McAfee has its own lawsuit pending against DeepNines, but she couldn't offer details about that lawsuit, other than that it was filed in January.




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