RSA Conference 2008

Cisco Looks to EMC to Fulfill DLP

| Apr 7, 2008 | Enterprise Security | Show Update

| Analyst: Charlotte Dunlap

Current Perspective: Positive/Neutral Vendor Importance: High Market Impact: High

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Event Summary

April 7, 2008 -- Cisco and EMC announced the intention to expand their strategic alliance to offer holistic data security solutions that span different layers of the information technology (IT) infrastructure, including storage, servers, networks, and data center security. The companies plan to build on their existing collaboration to develop integrated products, services, and best practices by taking advantage of resources and technology from Cisco, EMC, and RSA, the Security Division of EMC. These offerings will be designed to provide customers with the ability to discover, secure, track, and enforce the usage of sensitive data stored in the data center and at desktop and server endpoints, as well as while sensitive data is transmitted across enterprise networks.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on Cisco’s plans to partner with EMC and its security division RSA to license its data leakage prevention (DLP) technology, because the collaboration, which includes leveraging both companies’ DLP, PCI compliance, data center security, data encryption, and key management technologies, helps to strengthen Cisco’s product offerings within its self-defending network architecture. Specifically, Cisco will focus initial DLP integration on its client security product, Cisco Security Agent (CSA).

• Vendor Importance: High to Cisco, specifically its plans to integrate leading DLP technology into its popular CSA product, because the move provides customers with technology that addresses a growing concern around the potential loss of sensitive customer information and intellectual property.

• Market Impact: High on the endpoint security market, because Cisco is looking to beat the competition in adding DLP to its endpoint solution; however, Cisco has not provided a timeline for the project. Competitors such as McAfee and Symantec have acquired their own DLP technology and could beat Cisco to the punch in integrating the emerging technology with endpoint solutions. In the meantime, while endpoint security providers may claim outbound or DLP protection, these solutions protect against structured data (e.g., social security and credit card numbers), and not unstructured data (e.g., intellectual property), which is where Cisco is looking to differentiate.

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