It has been a while since we had an acquisition in the database security space, but today Trustwave announced it acquired Application Security Inc. – commonly called “AppSec” by many who know the company.

About 10 years ago I wrote my first competitive analysis paper during my employment with IPLocks, of our principal competitor: another little-known database security company called Application Security, Inc. Every quarter for four years, I updated those competitive analysis sheets to keep pace with AppSec’s product enhancements and competitive tactics in sales engagements. Little did I know I would continue to examine AppSec’s capabilities on a quarterly basis after having joined Securosis – but rather than solely looking at competitive positioning, I have been gearing my analysis toward how features map to the customer inquires, and tracking consumer experiences during proof-of-concept engagements. Of all the products I have tracked, I have been following AppSec the longest. It feels odd to be writing this for a general audience, but this deal is pretty straightforward, and it needed to happen.

Application Security was one of the first database security vendors, and while they were considered a leader in the 2004 timeframe, their products have not been competitive for several years. AppSec still has one of the best database assessment products on the market (dbProtectAppDetectivePRO), and one of the better – possibly the best – database vulnerability research team backing it. But Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) is now the key driver in that space, and AppSec’s DAM product (AppDetectivePROdbProtect) has not kept pace with customer demand in terms of performance, integration, ease-of-use, or out-of-the-box functionality. A “blinders on” focus can be both admirable and necessary for very small start-ups to deliver innovative technologies to markets that don’t understand their new technology or value proposition, but as markets mature vendors must respond to customers and competitors. In AppSec’s early days, very few people understood why database security was important. But while the rest of the industry matured and worked to build enterprise-worthy solutions, AppSec turned a deaf ear to criticism from would-be customers and analysts. Today the platform has reasonable quality, but is not much more than an ‘also-ran’ in a very competitive field.

That said, I think this is a very good purchase for Trustwave. It means several things for Trustwave customers:

  • Trustwave has filled a compliance gap in its product portfolio – specifically for PCI. Trustwave is focused on PCI-DSS, and data and database security are central to PCI compliance. Web and network security have been part of their product suite, but database security has not. Keep in mind that DAM and assessment are not specifically prescribed for PCI compliance like WAF is; but the vast majority of customers I speak with use DAM to audit activity, discovery to show what data stores are being used, and assessment to prove that security controls are in place. Trustwave should have acquired this technology a while ago.
  • The acquisition fits Trustwave’s model of buying decent technology companies at low prices, then selling a subset of their technology to existing customers where they already know demand exists. That could explain why they waited so long – balancing customer requirements against their ability to negotiate a bargain price. Trustwave knows what their customers need to pass PCI better than anyone else, so they will succeed with this technology in ways AppSec never could.
  • This puts Trustwave on a more even footing for customers who care more about security and don’t just need to check a compliance box, and gives Trustwave a partial response to Imperva’s monitoring and WAF capabilities.
  • I think Trustwave is correct that AppSec’s platform can help with their managed services offering – Monitoring and Assessment as a Service appeals to smaller enterprises and mid-market firms who don’t want to own or manage database security platforms.

What does this mean for AppSec customers? It is difficult to say – I have not spoken with anyone from Trustwave about this acquisition, and I am unable to judge their commitment to putting engineering effort behind the AppSec products. And I cannot tell whether they intend to keep the research team which has been keeping the assessment component current. Trustwave tweeted during the official announcement that “.@Trustwave will continue to develop and support @AppSecInc products, DbProtect and AppDetectivePRO”, but that could be limited to features compliance buyers demand, without closing the performance and data collection gaps that are problematic for DAM customers. I will blog more on this as I get more information, but expect them to provide what’s required to meet compliance and no more.

And lastly, for those keeping score at home, AppSec is the 7th Database Activity Monitoring acquisition – after Lumigent (BeyondTrust), IPLocks (Fortinet), Guardium (IBM), Secerno (Oracle), Tizor (IBM via Netezza), and Sentrigo (McAfee); leaving Imperva and GreenSQL as the last independent DAM vendors.

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