RSA Conference 2009

Cisco Gets SaaS-y with Security

| Apr 23, 2009 | Managed IT Services | Show Update

| Analyst: Amy Larsen DeCarlo

Current Perspective: Positive Vendor Importance: Moderate Market Impact: High

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Event Summary

April 21, 2009 -- Cisco launched several new additions to its portfolio that support the delivery of security capabilities through the cloud. The company’s new Cisco Security Cloud Services provide security-as-a-service for support both in the cloud and on the customer’s premises. Cisco Security Cloud Services support the recently announced Cisco IronPort hosted e-mail security services as well as a global correlation service that analyzes data from multiple sources to assess accurately the threat environment. Cisco is also introducing Cisco SAFE, a security reference architecture that businesses can use to design and implement security measures and practices across the enterprise. The company is also adding new technology governance, risk management, and compliance security assessment services

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Cisco’s RSA launch of its Cisco Security Cloud Services, because the security-as-a-service solution correlates data collected from the company’s global threat detection network to identify dangerous threats accurately and ward off attacks on enterprise customer networks. The cloud-based model is a natural fit for this kind of service, because the increasingly complex and geographically distributed threat environment requires that data is pulled from sources around the world.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Cisco, because by recognizing growing demand for cloud-based security services, particularly in a CapEx-averse budget environment, the company is adding off-premises security offerings to its portfolio that help it compete in this new world order. This includes solutions such as its hosted e-mail security services (see “Cisco Takes a Hybrid Approach to Mail Security,” March 5, 2009), which this new threat correlation helps support. The introduction of the new Cisco Security Cloud Services demonstrates that Cisco is making a serious investment in the on-demand managed service delivery model.

• Market Impact: High on the managed security segment, because Cisco brings to bear substantial resources for cloud-based managed security that only a very few competitors can match. The company is certain to be a major force in the security-as-a-service space.

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