IBM's security stance: underrated or overambitious?

Big Blue is trying to succeed in the less familiar terrain of network and desktop security — and finding that a few high-profile moves aren’t enough to sway some skeptical analysts.

Slideshow: Five cool IBM security research projects

When IBM acquired Internet Security Systems (ISS) a year ago, the industry’s mixed reaction included that of Gartner security analyst John Pescatore, who said it doesn’t “make sense for IBM to own network-security products.”

IBM pushed forward nevertheless, striking a deal to buy Web-application security vendor Watchfire last June. In early November IBM said it will spend $1.5 billion on security in 2008, and announced several new products and services for data security and compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. That sum is thought to be twice as high as IBM’s previous security spending.

IBM’s latest move, announced Thursday this week, boosted its data-protection portfolio with the acquisition of Arsenal Digital Solutions, which provides services for server and PC data protection, backup and recovery, business continuity, and regulatory compliance.

Pescatore still thinks IBM should take it slow, saying that the fact IBM has expertise in providing IT infrastructure doesn’t mean it should be selling products that react to security threats.

Fraud detection and fraud management are areas that would make sense for IBM, but “the area we don’t think they should go [into] is more network security stuff, like buying a firewall company or getting into antiviral software,” Pescatore says.

IBM does provide antivirus software in IBM ISS’ desktop offering. Moreover, IBM intends to be “the dominant security player” in a market that’s ripe for consolidation, says Peter Evans, vice president of marketing at IBM ISS. A big enterprise that buys security products from dozens of vendors might have an easier time managing those tools if they all came from one vendor, or from just a few, Evans notes. Much of the $1.5 billion IBM plans to spend on security will focus on creating integrations between various security products, he says.

Hidden talent

Some analysts are wary of IBM’s increased focus on security, but others say there’s no one better at protecting IT systems than Big Blue. “I think IBM is more focused on security than anybody you would meet in the IT marketplace,” says analyst Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research.

If IBM has a shortcoming, it’s that it hasn’t bragged enough about its security capabilities, Djurdjevic says. IBM is starting to market itself more aggressively now as it tackles the network security market, which is the “cool thing” these days, he says.

“They haven’t done a very good job of marketing that focus or projecting it to the outside world, especially not in this desktop environment,” Djurdjevic says. “Their home turf is the mainframe. That’s the Fort Knox of IT today, as it has been the last several decades. That’s the most secure environment you will ever find.”

IBM’s security expertise goes deeper than people might think, says Forrester analyst Geoffrey Turner. “They haven’t put security out front as one of their discrete offerings or one of their differentiators in the marketplace, because it is so well integrated with the rest of their capabilities,” he says. “They were probably the strongest early pioneers and advocates of cryptography and its application to security in the IT environment.”