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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DownSouth who wrote (5272)	8/24/1999 10:57:00 AM
From: JRH	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Downsouth and Devil's Advocate: It seems to me, before I look further, that the firewall tornado never quite developed, or perhaps I missed it and its over. I think that firewalls as a seperate entity never really took off, but rather they were incorporated in edge routers, which would explain CSCO's dominance in firewalls. I am not sure why someone would go buy a seperate software package for a firewall. I think Devil's Advocate is trying to vouch for CHKP's royalty class in the VPN market. From the numbers I have seen (and I don't have a source right now, this is coming from the memory banks ;), the VPN market size is puny right now, but is really taking off. Has it crossed the chasm? I dunno about that. It seems to me that VPN is more of a solution for small-mid size companies with a few seperate offices to connect. VPNs also are being used by large corporations for remote-access for telecommuting employees. I think it is a lot more cost effective to set up a VPN than to have a modem pool. BWDIK, Justin

To: DownSouth who wrote (5272)	8/24/1999 10:57:00 AM
From: Devil's Advocate	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Like I said before, I don't think that CheckPoint is a gorilla candidate but more like a king candidate. Your conclusion about the firewall product is right. They have been beaten by Cisco. They are still selling to clients who prefers a software version of a firewall. But the story now is about VPN. And my point is this: Cisco cannot prevent them from capturing the market this time. Clients prefer software solutions for VPN. This makes CkeckPoint emerging as a king in the VPN. CheckPoint has no solid mean to prevent other to enter the market, IMHO. Microsoft could damage CheckPoint if they ever decide to enter this market, although Microsoft has a very weak reputation on security (Windows is full of holes). I think that in the security area, clients will tend to stick to market leader. I expect them to be very conservative. NETA breakdown will help CheckPoint even more. NETA was the main competitor. Cisco had an association with NETA to compete CheckPoint. Cisco just made a bad choice. As you can see, lots of speculation on my part. Only future will tell.