Research

When I first started the Securosis blog back in 2006 I didn’t really know what to expect. I already had access to a publishing platform (Gartner), and figured blogging would let me talk about the sorts of things that didn’t really fit my day job. What I didn’t expect, what totally stunned me, was the incredible value of participating in a robust community holding intense debates, in the open, on the permanent record. Debates of the written word, which to be cogent in any meaningful way take at least a little time to cobble together and spell check. I realized that the true value of blogging isn’t that anyone could publish anything, but the inter-blog community that develops as we cross-link and cross comment. It’s how Mike Rothman and I went from merely nodding acquaintances at various social functions, to full business partners. I met Chris Hoff when I blogged I was rolling through his home town, and he then took me out to dinner. Since then we’ve paired up for 2 years of top rated sessions at the RSA Conference, and become good friends. Martin McKeay went from some dude I’d never heard of to another close friend, with whom I now podcast on a weekly basis. And those three are just the tip of the list. Blogging also opened my world in ways I could never have anticipated. This open dialog fundamentally changed opinions and positions by exposing me to a wider community. Gartner was great, but very insular. I talked with other Gartner analysts, Gartner customers, and vendors… all a self-selecting community. With blogging, I found myself talking with everyone from CEOs to high school students. At least I used to, because I feel like that community, that experience, is gone. The community of interlinked blogs that made such an impact on me seems to be missing. Sure, we have the Security Blogger’s Network and the Meetup at RSA, but as I go through my daily reading and writing, it’s clear that we aren’t interacting at nearly the level of even 2 years ago. Fewer big debates, fewer comments (generally), and fewer discussions on the open record. I’m not the only one feeling the loss. Every Tuesday and Thursday we try to compile the best of the security web for the Securosis Incite and Friday Summary, and the pickings have been slim for a while now. There are only so many times we can link back to Gunnar, Bejtlich, or the New School. Heck, when we post the FireStarter on Monday, our goal isn’t to get comments on our site (although we like that), but to spur debate and discussion on everyone else’s sites. As you can tell by the title, I think Twitter is a major factor. Our multi-post debates are now compressed into 140 characters. Not that I dislike Twitter – I love it (maybe too much), but while it can replace a post that merely links to a URL, it can’t replace the longer dialog or discussions of blogging. I’m too lazy to run the numbers, but I’ve noticed a definite reduction in comments on our blog and blogging in general as Twitter rises in popularity. I’ve had people flat-out tell me they’ve given up on blogging to focus on Twitter. Correlation isn’t causation, and the plural of anecdote isn’t data, but anyone who was on the scene a few years ago easily sees the change. When I brought this up in our internal chat room, Chris Pepper said: It’s a good point that if you have a complicated thought, it’s probably better to stew on it and build a post than to type whatever you can fit in 140 characters, hit Return, then sigh with relief that you don’t have to think about it any more. Dear Bloggers, Please come back. I miss you. -me Share:

As a former marketing guy, I’m sensitive to meaningless descriptors that obfuscate the value a product brings to a customer. Seeing Larry Walsh’s piece on next generation firewalls versus UTM got my blood boiling because it’s such a meaningless argument. It’s time we slay the entire concept of ‘next generation’ anything. That’s right, I’m saying it. The concept of a next generation is a load of crap. The vendor community has taken to calling incremental iterations ‘next generation’ because they can’t think of a real reason customers should upgrade their gear. Maybe the new box is faster, so the 2% of the users out there actually maxing out their gear get some relief. Maybe it’s a little more functional or adds a bit more device support. Again, this hardly ever provides enough value to warrant an upgrade. But time and time again, we hear about next generation this or next generation that. It makes me want to hurl. I guess we can thank the folks at Microsoft, who perfected the art of forced upgrades with little to no value-add. Even today continue to load into office suites feature after feature that we don’t need. If you don’t believe me, open up that old version of Word 2003 and it’ll work just fine. Let’s consider the idea of the “next generation firewall,” which I highlighted in last week’s Incite with announcements from McAfee and SonicWall. Basically SonicWall’s is bigger and McAfee’s does more with applications. I would posit neither of these capabilities are unique in the industry, nor are they disruptive in any way. Which is the point. To me, ‘next generation’ means disruption of the status quo. You could make the case that Salesforce.com disrupted the existing CRM market with an online context for the application. A little closer to home, you could say the application white listing guys are poised to disrupt the endpoint security agent. That’s if they overcome the perception that the technology screws up the user experience. For these kinds of examples, I’m OK with ‘next generation’ for true disruption. But here’s the real problem, at least in the security space: End users are numb. They hear ‘next generation’ puffery from vendors and they shut down. Remember, end users don’t care whether the technology is first, second, third, or tenth generation. They care whether a vendor can solve the problem. What example(s) do we have of a ‘next generation’ product/category really being ‘next generation’? Right, not too many. We can peek into the library and crack open the Innovator’s Dilemma again. The next generation usually emerges from below (kind of like UTM) targeting a smaller market segment with similar capabilities delivered at a much better price point. Eventually the products get functional enough to displace enterprise products, and that is your next generation. Riddle me this, Batman, what am I missing here? And all you marketing folks lurking (I know you’re out there), tell me why you continue to stand on the crutch of ‘next generation’, as opposed to figuring out what is important to end users. I’d really like to know. Photo credit: “BPL’s Project Next Generation” originally uploaded by The Shifted Librarian Share:

I will be presenting a webinar: “Understanding and Selecting a Database Assessment Solution” with Imperva this Wednesday, May 19th at 11am PST / 2pm EST. I’ll cover the deployment models, key features, and ways to differentiate assessment platforms. I’ll spend a little more time on applicability for compliance, as that is the key driver for adoption now, but cover other use cases as well. You can register and sign up for the webinar. As always, if you have questions you would like addressed, you can email me prior to the presentation. Share: