llmarinen, good PR on Nokia's security system:
BusinessWeek Online
DAILY BRIEFING -- Nokia's Security Connection
Daily Briefing: SECURITY NET
By Alex Salkever
It's not just about cell phones anymore. At least, that's the message coming from wireless giant Nokia
Over the past three years, Nokia Internet Communications, a U.S.-based division of the Finnish company, has grown from a pipsqueak in security to a force to be reckoned with. According to tech researcher IDC, Nokia is quickly grabbing market share in the exploding market for firewall/VPN appliances.
These appliances are dedicated computers used to run firewall systems and
to establish and maintain virtual private network [VPN] connections,
encrypted ``tunnels'' of data that allow employees to log on to corporate
networks from remote locations without compromising security. In a June,
2001, report, IDC analysts claimed that companies spent $943 million on
these appliances last year. That's significantly up from $182 million in 1998
and $373.5 million in 1999.
According to IDC, Nokia grabbed 22% of that share in 2000 -- a 430%
increase over its market share in 1999. Those numbers seem to be
corroborated by vendors and customers, who generally give Nokia's
products rave reviews. ``There is not a Nokia box that I have seen that
doesn't give outstanding performance,'' says Brenda Wilkins, vice-president
for sales at Canadian Web-security product vendor WhiteHat. According to
Wilkins, 60% to 65% of her customers prefer Nokia over other firewall
appliances.
GROWING FAST. Dan MacDonald, Nokia's vice-president in charge of Internet security products, says revenues from security have gone from the tens of millions of dollars in 1999 to hundreds of millions last year. [The company won't disclose exact numbers, but 2000 revenues appear to be in the range of $100 million to $200 million, based on units sold.]
Last year, Nokia sold over 50,000 machines, costing from several thousand dollars to $60,000. Security sales remain tiny for a company that booked $26.9 billion in 2000 gross sales.
But the segment is growing much faster than Nokia's 35% aggregate growth rate for the past year.
Nokia first got into security in 1998 with the idea that it would eventually need to know how to secure wireless networks the world over. That security background would help customer adoption rates and allow Nokia to offer more complete services to buyers of its wireless-network gear. Of course, it didn't hurt that analysts had projected a boom in the Internet security market.
UNIFIED INTERFACE. What exactly does Nokia sell? Put simply, it designs computers equipped with a specially designed, hard-to-hack version of the open-source BSD operating system, a branch of the Unix family that also includes Linux. These machines are specially optimized to run software from leading security vendors, including firewalls from market leader Check Point (NasdaqNM:CHKP), intrusion-detection systems from Internet Security Systems (NasdaqNM:ISSX), and antivirus software from MacAfee. The only major pieces that Nokia itself contributes are VPN-management software and a management console that makes it easier for security engineers to monitor multiple products in a single, unified interface.
This approach lets Nokia's customers pick and choose what type of security programs, all with trusted brand names, they want to run. And they can do this on a single dedicated system [or, more likely, two of these systems, including a primary and a backup].
Nokia also includes load-balancing software, programs that speed up networks by directing data traffic away from the busiest link. ``If you buy a Nokia appliance and you're able to install three products on it,'' says Wilkins, ``you have saved yourself the cost of buying three operating systems.''
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