Everybody else is suspect. In other words, I need to know what they offer, their business strengths and weaknesses, their technology advantages and shortcomings, services levels, estimated longevity, and everything else in order to determine if they re a serious player for the long haul. So many security firms are either cropping up, widening their offerings or touting Internet infrastructure security solutions that assessments are nigh impossible for customers to conduct effectively. I ve got to tell you this market is getting crowded and it ll be standing room only for quite a while. Well-known security vendor products often come from a consumer tradition, leaving doubt about their industry depth and level of commitment.
Customer support varies dramatically by vendor.
Small vendors may expect security expertise within their client s staff to handle technical details while large vendors may focus on client support, assuming little in-house client security expertise. Outstanding security applications are a necessary but insufficient criteria for vendor success. Too many other variables impact protection reliability including responsive support, continual updates, integrative capabilities with other security products, etc. The security managed services provider market offers so many advantages that it will rival traditional software installation. The product-services mix is evolving quickly, further muddling vendor categories and security business models.