思科发力欲重塑防火墙市场格局

    最近数年来，网络设备巨头思科公司（Cisco）的防火墙业务受到了竞争对手的强劲挑战，市场份额不断被蚕食，而这个对手却是规模比思科规模小得多的巴洛艾托网络公司（Palo Alto Networks）。而今，思科开始向对手的颠覆性技术发起反击，准备推出新一代“情境感知型”防火墙产品。

    思科宣布此消息的时间是本周一下午，也就是旧金山RSA信息安全会议正式开幕前一天。新任思科公司安全与政府业务高级副总裁的克里斯•杨将在此次会议上首次公开亮相。

    上周，我在思科总部对克里斯•杨进行了采访，希望了解他重振思科安全业务的计划，以及如何应对来自巴洛艾托公司的竞争。（顺便说一下，后者已经做好准备，随时可能申请上市。）杨承认，巴洛艾托公司是最早发现新一代情境感知型防火墙这一商机的公司，这种技术能够探测到不同的应用软件、用户和设备，而不仅仅是IP地址。但他认为，思科可以将这种安全功能嵌入向客户销售的基础设备中，从而击败竞争对手。思科拥有广泛的用户基础，但在安全业务方面尚有很大的提升空间。

    高德纳研究咨询公司（Gartner）最近的一份报告将业内新生势力巴洛艾托公司列为企业网络防火墙业务的顶尖提供商。该报告还表示，防火墙市场正在经历“动态演化”阶段。

    杨在采访中称：“情况其实很简单：市场有需求，巴洛艾托网络公司率先抓住了这个机遇。但我们现在已经认识到这种市场需求的存在，正在推出相应的服务，同时还要进一步创造出更高的价值。”

    杨表示，如同之前的声音、视频和数据功能一样，思科公司将在基础设备中嵌入情境感知型安全功能，从而充分体现思科公司的价值所在。他说：“网络将所有这些新体验都衔接起来，包括应用软件、数据、设备和用户。”

    在思科于周一举办的新闻发布会上，公司高管演示了新的防火墙科技，企业管理人员可借助该技术追踪员工在多种设备上使用应用软件的情况，比如，某位用户是否在使用iPhone、个人电脑或其他设备在Facebook上发帖或共享视频。该技术还能推动公司实施相关政策，比如禁止特定的员工群体玩iPad游戏。

    思科首席执行官约翰•钱伯斯明确表示，安全业务现在是公司的头等大事。虽然巴洛艾托网络公司早在数年前就推出了情境感知型防火墙产品，但现在思科才推出类似产品。去年11月份，钱伯斯将克里斯•杨招进了公司董事会，并将安全业务设为思科首个独立的产品部门。杨表示：“我们的客户已经意识到，没有网络帮助，他们无法解决安全问题。客户并不关心我们去年赚了多少钱，也不关心去年公司的安全业务增长了多少，他们关心的是网络的安全性。”

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    For the past few years Cisco's firewall business has been losing market share to a much smaller rival called Palo Alto Networks. Now the network equipment giant is set to unveil its answer to Palo Alto's disruptive technology -- its own next-generation, so-called "context aware" firewall.

    The announcement was made Monday afternoon, a day before the official start of the RSA Conference in San Francisco. The event was also a coming-out party for Chris Young, the new SVP of Cisco's (CSCO) security and government group.

    I sat down with Young last week to find out how he plans to revive Cisco's security business and take on Palo Alto Networks (which, by the way, is expected to file for an IPO any day now). Young conceded that Palo Alto Networks was first to recognize the need for next-generation, context-aware firewalls, which can detect different applications, users and devices -- not just IP addresses. But he believes Cisco can beat the competition by embedding such security features into the infrastructure equipment it sells to companies. Cisco has a vast user base, but it also has a lot of catch-up to play in the security space.

    A recent report from research firm Gartner listed relative newcomer Palo Alto Networks as a leading vendor in enterprise network firewalls. The report also stated that the firewall market is undergoing a period of "dynamic evolution."

    "The story is really simple—there's a market need for this and those guys [Palo Alto Networks] saw it early on," Young said during last week's interview at Cisco's headquarters. "But what we've done is taken the approach of recognizing that this need exists and delivering on it but also taking it a step further and bringing another level of value."

    Part of Cisco's value, according to Young, will be its ability to embed context-aware security capabilities into its infrastructure equipment, just like it has done with voice, video and data. "The network is the substrate that binds all these new experiences together—the apps, the data, the devices and the users," says Young.

    At Cisco's press conference on Monday, company execs showed a demo of its new firewall technology, which lets administrators track how employees are using apps across a range of devices--for example, whether a particular user is posting or sharing videos on Facebook using an iPhone, PC or other device. It also enables companies to enforce policies, like not allowing a specific group of employees to access games on iPads.

    Cisco CEO John Chambers has made it clear that the security business is now a priority. But while Palo Alto Networks launched its context-aware firewall several years ago, Cisco is launching a similar product today. In addition to bringing Young on board last November, CEO Chambers has made the security business a separate product division, a first for Cisco. "Our customers have realized that they can't solve the security problem without the help of the network," says Young. "Customers don't care about how much money we make or how much we grew in the security business last year. They want security built into the network."