Where do security companies go to die?

 

I have been spending the last week researching the 80 or so gateway firewall vendors. Contrary to my long held belief that security companies never die I found that a number of these had actually disappeared without a trace. It is not too hard to track down Kavado, Gillium, or Sanctum. These application firewalls ended at fire sales to various buyers. But what ever happened to OmniCluster, the firewall blade server company? They were a Florida based spin-off of IBM. At one point they changed their name to 14 South which was supposed to indicate the latitude separation between them and IBM’s head quarters in New York. Evidently that was not enough to save them. There are plenty of articles about the formation of Omnicluster but I cannot find a single reference to its demise.

Remember Spearhead Security Technologies? They marketed an air-gap firewall. Unlike their competitor, Whale, they failed to transition to something customers really needed. Whale Communications is alive and well as an SSL VPN appliance vendor. (Full discloser: I was on Whale’s advisory board until March 1st of this year). I see Owl Computing is still hanging in there with their DataDiode air-gap technology. So what happened to Spearhead? I see that at least one executive from Spearhead moved on to the ill-fated V-One which was snapped up by AEP Networks. But what happened to Spearhead?

So security companies really do die. But who is watching? It would be great if there were a website that tracked these sorts of things. There are usually some common red flags that could give potential customers early warning when a company was on the skids. Hmmm… I wonder if SecurityCompanyDeathwatch.com is available? It is!

Do you know of other security companies that have slipped off the radar screen? Post them here in TalkBack.