Palo Alto Networks Wins ‘Bake-Offs’ Against Cisco, Check Point
Proofpoint ( PFPT ) rebuffed Wall Street concerns that tech spending has slowed this quarter, Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski wrote Monday, following last week’s 40,000-attendance cybersecurity RSA Conference in San Francisco. Fears of a tech spending depression slugged IBD’s 25-company Computer Software-Security industry group after dismal outlooks by Tableau Software ( DATA ) and LinkedIn ( LNKD ) last month. The group hit a 20-month low on Feb. 9 but has since risen 31%. A weak spending outlook did not play out at RSA, Nowinski and William Blair analyst Jonathan Ho wrote Monday in separate research reports. “(Proofpoint) management said they are seeing ‘absolutely no change in the buying environment,’” Nowinski wrote. “Based on our meetings at the conference, we believe demand trends in Q1 have remained strong through the first two months of the year.” Endpoint Pits Symantec, FireEye, IBM Trending buzzwords include endpoint security, internal access management and privileged account management, Nowinski wrote. Symantec ( SYMC ), FireEye ( FEYE ) and IBM ( IBM ) (via a partnership with Carbon Black) compete in the endpoint market. Industry tracker IDC sees endpoint security revenue reaching $4.6 billion in 2016, up 5.4% and accelerating from 2% year-over-year growth in 2015, Nowinski wrote. Despite a marketing refresh, Symantec will struggle against “rapidly growing next-generation endpoint vendors that have demonstrated stronger solutions,” Ho predicted. FireEye, on the other hand, bolstered its threat-prevention capabilities by adding exploit detection to its endpoint. IDC also expects internal access management revenue to reach $5.9 billion in 2016 and grow at an 8% compound annual growth rate through 2019. Within that sector, privileged account management will comprise $550 million, growing at a 10.6% CAGR over the next four years, Ho says. CyberArk Software ( CYBR ) rivals Centrify in the identity access management ring, Nowinski wrote. But Centrify’s tools for securing both privileged accounts and end-user identity give it a broader portfolio than CyberArk, he wrote. During RSA, CyberArk released a new version of its privileged threat analytics system, aimed at stopping “Golden Ticket” attacks which exploit privileged credentials in Microsoft ( MSFT ) domain-level administrator accounts, Ho wrote. Ho also noted that a platform focus continues to buoy Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ), which he says still wins “bake-offs” against Cisco Systems ( CSCO ), Check Point Software Technologies ( CHKP ) and Juniper Networks ( JNPR ). But Check Point’s software-based firewall could be a game changer, he wrote. “Check Point’s software-based firewall appears better positioned than competitors for the upcoming shift to third-party cloud architectures such as AWS ( Amazon ( AMZN ) Web Service) and (Microsoft) Azure,” he said. ‘Spending Has Not Weakened’ Ultimately, the RSA Conference quelled concerns of slowing spending and lengthening sales cycles, Ho wrote. RSA saw 70 first-time exhibitors, giving it 500 companies at the event, and more than 20% growth from 33,000 attendees in 2015. “We observed continued excitement over the space and a strong appetite for new solutions, consistent with prior years,” Ho wrote. “Our discussions with private and public companies suggest that the environment remains robust and that security spending has not weakened near term.” Overall themes included the burgeoning Internet of Things market, encryption, third-party cloud security, identity/access management as-a-service, real-time visibility, next-generation endpoint security, automation/orchestration and leveraging Big Data analytics, Ho wrote. “The conference reinforced our view that the companies best positioned to benefit from increased spending are those that offer innovative next-generation approaches that will see rapid growth in investment,” he wrote. Customers are looking at cost, manageability and vendor consolidation, Ho wrote.