As the IT industry matures, the vendors are consolidating. We’ve seen this in systems management, in enterprise applications, and in telecommunications. One area that stills seems a bit fragmented is security. Over the past year, I’ve worked with dozens of niche security solution companies, each one addressing one aspect of what needs to be a holistic approach to computer security. I predict that soon, we will see enterprise buyers ask their prime security vendors to offer more integrated solutions and services so the buyers won’t need to cobble together independent products.
Some vendors are already starting to work together on their own. Just this morning I read that Websense and PortAuthority Technologies are going to integrate their technologies to provide a deeper level of data security. I’m glad to see these two companies bolting their products together in-house before shipping them to customers. That’s one less hassle for enterprise buyers to worry about.
Five years ago, the systems management landscape consisted of dozens of small players that offered one small piece of the puzzle. Larger companies like BMC Software, CA, Tivoli and HP swooped in to snap up small players and add the technologies to their own offerings. The security market is ripe for this kind of action, too.
Who do you think will be the dominate security players five years from now? What companies would make for logical couplings?
