Cisco Lobs Firewall Barbs To Whack Palo Alto, Check Point, Fortinet
Networking firm Cisco Systems ( CSCO ) was slated to mount a cybersecurity charge Tuesday, unveiling a next-generation firewall to squash Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), Check Point Software Technology ( CHKP ), Fortinet ( FTNT ) and Intel ( INTC )-owned McAfee. Protecting digital data is a $19 billion opportunity over the next 10 years, Dave Stuart, Cisco’s director of product marketing, told IBD. Cisco’s Firepower Next-Generation Firewall will capture some of those billions, he says. “We believe this level of integration is unprecedented in the environment,” Stuart says. “Competitors . . . miss that opportunity to correlate information to shrink that time-to-detection rapidly in the market.” Tech Giants Battle Pure Players In Security Stuart’s words are merely the latest barb lobbed against pure players in the cybersecurity battle for market share . Broad-based tech giants IBM ( IBM ), Cisco, Dell and Microsoft ( MSFT ) have made hefty investments in recent years to carve out security sales, going up against each other and companies that focus solely on security wares. On Wednesday, Cisco posted fiscal Q2 results, saying its security sales for the quarter ended Jan. 23 rose 11% from the year-earlier quarter, to $462 million. Cisco’s overall revenue was flat. For the first half of fiscal 2016, Cisco’s $947 million in security sales rose 9%, to $947 million. Cisco’s half-year security revenue already eclipses the total 2015 sales for CyberArk Software ( CYBR ), Proofpoint ( PFPT ), FireEye ( FEYE ) and Palo Alto Networks, and is nearing Fortinet, which reported $1.01 billion in 2015 sales. And security made up just 4% of Cisco’s $11.8 billion in total fiscal Q2 revenue. “We clearly have our efforts behind security,” Stuart said. “The opportunity is not lost on our adversaries either.” Industrywide, a breach is generally detected within 100 days, Stuart says. He says Cisco’s technology shrank that to 17.5 hours, down from 46 hours in the prior quarter. Firepower pulls intelligence from across that technology to detect a breach. Firepower Deletes ‘Human’ Element As Stuart describes it, upon a breach, the Firepower management center forces the “stranger-host” into a contained environment. The process is automated — it doesn’t require “back-end analysis with humans,” Stuart said. “We are providing the best of breed on the IPS (intrusion prevention system) side, advanced breach detection on the malware side and leading third-party platforms,” he said. “All that goes into a platform that is best of breed and doesn’t force that choice between products.” Last year, Cisco acquired security vendor OpenDNS for $635 million, adding to its $2.7 billion Sourcefire acquisition in 2013. Via OpenDNS, Firepower can detect malicious online activity and then “instruct the URL to batten down,” Stuart said. “That’s the integration we’ve built into the platform now,” he said. “It really does differentiate us.” Firepower’s code is a singular code. Adding third-party layers will require joint efforts among security teams to ensure that the new code is up to snuff, Stuart said, adding, “We’re not opening this up for anybody to write their code onto it.” Segmentation Advisory Launched In conjunction with the Firepower announcement, Cisco was set to unveil its Security Segmentation Service, an advisory service designed to examine a client’s data for weaknesses, and then create a customized security approach. But that doesn’t mean Cisco is necessarily peddling its segmentation solution, TrustSec, Stuart says. Cisco competes in the segmentation market against pure players like Fortinet and Symantec ( SYMC ). The advisory service is merely a design jumping point, Stuart said. “We start with a workshop,” he said. “After about 60 days we discern what their business and compliance issues are. That goes essentially into building a design for segmentation.” Stuart acknowledges that Cisco is a newer entrant to the cybersecurity market. Switching, routing and collaboration remain its largest chunks of revenue, bringing $3.48 billion, $1.85 billion and $1.02 billion, respectively, in total fiscal Q2 sales. Cisco long has been the No. 1 maker of networking gear. Rivals “have been in the next-generation firewall space for a while,” he said. “I might add, some of the vendors providing sand-boxing are trying to expand their portfolios into prevention and remediation. We’re way ahead on them in terms of those aspects.”