Small vendors doomed as giants swallow security?
IBM has been slow to integrate its acquisition of security vendor ISS, but its decision to do so spells certain doom for smaller security vendors pitching for big business, according to analysts.
Small and mid-sized security firms will find it more difficult to win business from large organisations following IBM's move to integrate its security business more tightly with its governance and consulting businesses.
"We're going to see a consolidation of the market, so there will be more acquisitions in security. It continues to be a large area of growth from a services perspective. Many more niche players will be acquired," David Williams, business unit executive for IBM Global Technology Services, ANZ told ZDNet Australia.
Williams' view was echoed by Hydrasight analyst Michael Warrilow who agreed that more consolidation will occur.
"We are definitely going to start seeing accelerated consolidation because we're moving away from best of breed for security," he said.
Larger vendors generally offer a broad base of solutions and smoother product refreshes, which are preferred by enterprises, said Warrilow, who pointed out that Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, IBM and Symantec have continued with their acquisition spree.
"Symantec is starting to prove that you can go for 'breadth of breed' where you're getting more solutions from one vendor, which ultimately should be integrated, easy to purchase, and easy to administer," said Warrilow.
IBM's Williams said that smaller customers still view security as a means to extinguish "spot fires" that occurred 12 months ago, while larger clients want security to form part of business strategy.
Although IBM is heading in the right direction, it has been moving slowly, said Warrilow.
"They have to get their act together. Tivoli should be doing more with ISS; ISS should be doing more with business consulting. ISS gives great intelligence on the Web while IBM's consulting offers great information on the big end of town about how companies are protecting information and doing risk management," he said.
IBM's Williams conceded that since the company acquired ISS, it has approached security as a "tack on to other business units". However, he said its recent focus on consolidation means the company is on the right track.
"We had a network services business, recovery services business, consulting, information management; and security was tacked on to that," he said.
"We have consolidated the IBM security framework in how we view it from governance to identity access, data security and physical security such as digital video surveillance. All IBM's brands fit within that framework," added Williams.