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Technology Stocks : Network Associates (NET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Rancher who wrote (2152)	3/19/1998 5:14:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

One problem is that a lot of people keep throwing around the word commodity with impunity. A commodity is a product that is indistinguishable from one vendor to another. Salt and milk are commodities. Now, if you look back a few years you had Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, and several other spreadsheets with more or less the same basic features. But these products were distinguishable, and consumers did make distinctions. The same is true of any number of pieces of software. So please, lets be a little more precise. Larson made an interesting point in his presentation about the TISX deal. He pointed to Microsoft Office as an example of what he wished to achieve. Microsoft Office has any number of "commodity" components, but it is a clear market winner because it is effectively sold as a suite. And that is what Larson is attempting to emulate in the network security market. Regards, Paul

To: The Rancher who wrote (2152)	3/19/1998 5:49:00 PM
From: Mike V.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6021

Rancher, Good response, but if I read your message correctly I need to clarify a few major points. 1. I do not expect Cisco to embed intrusion detection into a router or switch, doing so would only slow the performance of the device. I expect Cisco to sell the intrusion detection as a separate box i.e. a Cisco version of Cybercop. So you have to ask yourself the question, How long will Cisco allow the same product to be sold by a competitive sales organization? Since NETA does not own the intellectual property for intrusion detection, the Wheel Group does, the challenge of adding this functionality into the TIS firewall will be time consuming. 2. Larsen makes a big point in his vision of the future that NETA will be the leading WindowsNT application software company. As I understand it TIS has a UNIX product, so as a first step, to be consistent with his vision, NETA must re-write the TIS product to run on WindowsNT. 3. Your point on a "single point of contact" for sales is absolutely valid. However, end users view the acquisition of a network infrastructure, routers and switches, as strategic. They view the acquisition of a firewall as a point product. So as an end user, would you rather buy from your strategic vendor or your virus software vendor when you go looking for a firewall? 4. NETA has not proved they can integrate the technology they have acquired into comprehensive solutions. THAT'S THE BET HERE !!! Selling the separate products as "suites", with different user interfaces is nothing more than a marketing strategy not a solution. Integration of disparate data structure from separate products takes years not quarters. 5. Just because a market is still growing does not mean the product is not a commodity.