2010年8月24日 星期二

FW: Canalys Enterprise Security Analysis - Intel moves to acquire McAfee - 24 August 2010


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From: Jon Clay (MKT-US)
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 11:35:45 PM
To: Sandi Meyer (MKT-US); Newsbank
Subject: RE: Canalys Enterprise Security Analysis - Intel moves to acquire McAfee - 24 August 2010
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The proposed acquisition will no doubt have an impact on McAfee’s business in the short term. Though it will operate as a subsidiary of the Intel software and services group, the lack of focus on just security and the distraction of integration will undoubtedly affect McAfee’s ability to keep up with the general security industry.

 

This is our key message to customers, partners and prospects right now that our singular focus on security put us in a better position to support them, both in the near term and long term.

 

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From: Sandi Meyer (MKT-US)
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 9:05 AM
To: Newsbank
Subject: FW: Canalys Enterprise Security Analysis - Intel moves to acquire McAfee - 24 August 2010

 

 

 


From: Canalys [mailto:info@canalys.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 7:42 AM
To: Sandi Meyer (MKT-US)
Subject: Canalys Enterprise Security Analysis - Intel moves to acquire McAfee - 24 August 2010

 

Issue 2010.11 / 24 August 2010

Intel moves to acquire McAfee

What impact will the proposed acquisition have on McAfee and the broader security market?

  • Intel and McAfee would enable high-performance and secure virtual client environ-ments through Citrix
  • Intel should keep McAfee as a wholly owned subsidiary for it to remain relevant in the broader security market
  • Channel partners should wait and see what happens to McAfee within Intel before they decide whether or not to sever existing connections

Intel shocked the IT and security industry on 19 August when it announced plans to acquire McAfee after much speculation over the future of the specialist security vendor. Intel has offered to buy all McAfee shares at $48, a 60% premium on its closing price the day before the announcement, bringing the total value to $7.68 billion. This would be by far the biggest ac-quisition in the dedicated security industry to date, with Juniper Networks’ purchase of NetScreen in 2004 a distant second at $4 billion. It will also build on recent mergers and acquisitions, as broader IT vendors look to diversify into the increasingly important security market and high-growth sectors. HP acquired 3Com, through which it gained TippingPoint’s range of IPS appliances, and has more recently acquired Fortify, while Cisco bought ScanSafe to gain entry into the fast-growing hosted web threat sector. Intel’s move should also catalyse further consolidation activities as competitor s react.

Though an unexpected move, on closer inspection the proposed acquisition does have merit. Canalys believes that Intel aims to gain a foothold in a number of areas in which it has been traditionally weak through the use of McAfee technology. The key areas include:

  • Cloud computing and virtualization: Intel has clearly stated that its aim is to grow in im-portance in the data centre sector. Cloud computing and virtualization are prominent trends in this sector, but security and latency issues remain top of the list of barriers faced by decision-makers and IT departments considering moving to public clouds. Intel will be able to alleviate some of the security fears of going virtual with McAfee. By providing data encryption and access control mechanisms, McAfee can protect data regardless of where it sits. Intel also aims to grow through the developing virtual desktop market. Through an alliance with Citrix, Intel enables endpoint virtualization using Citrix XenClient and Intel Core 2, Centrino 2 and vPro processors on endpoint devices, including laptops, desktops and, no doubt in the near future, mobile devices. In conjunction with McAfee, which also has an alliance with both vendors, Citrix is also able to provide se curity within virtual desktop environments, providing virus scanning on an independent security server irrespective of the hypervisor the virtual desktop is running on. This moves the CPU-intensive scanning and signature updates away from the individual virtual machines and onto a centralized and dedicated security server. A solution is expected to be launched later this year. With the acquisition of McAfee and through its Citrix alliance, Intel will have a stronger proposition in virtualization and will be able to differentiate its offering from that of its competitors in the semiconductor industry. The Intel, McAfee and Citrix combination could bring more to the security sector over the next few years and it will be no surprise if Intel acquires a virtualization vendor to gain even more relevance in data centre deployments, as Canalys believes this to be key to the proposed acquisition of McAfee.

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  • Embedded security: It is also expected that Intel aims to integrate security directly onto its silicon to make security an inherent part of hardware. This will make it harder for hackers to gain access to devices through vulnerabilities in software or through human error. End users will not have to worry about their security posture and whether the latest signature patch has been downloaded. Security should become invisible to the user. This may sound good from a consumer’s point of view as the use of mobile devices and Intel-based consumer electronic devices increases, but Intel will face several challenges from a corporate perspective. IT managers are wary of losing control of the security of corporate devices. Microsoft, for example, has worked to build security into its platforms through BitLocker and even offers free security software in Windows Security Essentials, but this has failed to make an impact in the software security segment, with ma ny enterprises continuing to spend millions of dollars on endpoint protection every year. Intel could also face anti-trust issues in embedding McAfee-branded technology onto its chips that prevents other security vendors from securing Intel environments. Questions will be raised as to how open Intel is with keeping its existing relationships with other security vendors and if they will have access to its chips.
  • Mobile: Intel has been lagging behind its competitors in the mobile device market ever since it sold off its ARM mobile microprocessor division in 2006. ARM, TI and Qualcomm currently lead this area. Even with McAfee technology, it is unlikely that the provision of embedded security on Intel processors will have much of an impact. ARM announced in February this year a partnership with mobile banking security vendor Giesecke & Devrient aimed at providing secure environments on smart phones, and device manufacturers are also integrating security into their hardware. Dedicated security vendors already offer software protection for mobile devices, but this is still a very small proportion of the total security software market. The lack of major mobile threat outbreaks has meant users have not been forced to buy software to protect their devices. Canalys does not believe the main reason for offering $7.68 billion for McAfee is to gain a stronger position i n the mobile industry.

The proposed acquisition will no doubt have an impact on McAfee’s business in the short term. Though it will operate as a subsidiary of the Intel software and services group, the lack of focus on just security and the distraction of integration will undoubtedly affect McAfee’s ability to keep up with the general security industry. Its strategy has been to grow through acquiring smaller specialist vendors in areas where it lacked skills and technologies. Canalys estimates that the end-user value of its shipments grew 10% year-on-year in 2009 through the purchase of Reconnex, Secure Computing, MX Logic, Solidcore Systems and Endeavour Security. McAfee could lose the ability to stay ahead of its competitors if it becomes part of Intel unless further specialist acquisitions are sanctioned. Intel will also face a huge assimilation challenge as it tries to integrate a company that is still integrating itself. Not only will Intel get McAfee’s anti-virus business (which accounts for 26% of McAfee’s corporate business), it will also gain network security, mobile security, data protection, security hosted services, and risk and compliance technologies. Canalys expects that Intel will spin off or sell the McAfee hardware business in the future so that it can focus 100% on R&D in software and hosted services. Intel has made only a few acquisitions in the past and does not have a great track record in integrating them successfully as a way of moving into new areas. To be successful, Intel must keep McAfee as a wholly owned subsidiary within the software group as it works to integrate security technologies into its chips while maintaining the broader security business.

The largest proportion of Intel’s business is through its OEM relationships with PC vendors, followed by systems builders and PC assemblers, which have a direct relationship. Intel today does not understand B2B channels. If the acquisition closes, it will gain access to a massive channel of specialist and volume security resellers and systems integrators through McAfee. The security vendor has made inroads in streamlining its channel and has recently employed a number of strong channel managers and executives (for more on McAfee’s channel, please see ESAE Report 2009/01, ‘McAfee leads by acquisition’). Intel must make sure that it incentivizes these channel managers to stay beyond the short term, perhaps by offering Intel stock for those that stay beyond five years. If the acquisition closes, McAfee will no longer be a dedicated security company even if it is kept as an independent entity within Intel. This full focus on security is something that i t has boasted as a strength in the past, giving it the ability to quickly respond to the fast-moving threat landscape. While it is unclear what Intel’s true plans are with its proposed acquisition, Canalys suggests that McAfee channel partners in the short term should wait and see what happens to the security business. If Intel negatively impacts McAfee’s channel model, partners should quickly jump ship to more focused security vendors or even broader IT vendors with a clear and dedicated security division.

Integration of the security business will prove to be a major distraction. This, along with the bad signature update back in April from McAfee, will make many channel partners and customers re-assess their relationship. Competitors will be opportunistic and target McAfee’s business. Symantec, Trend Micro, Sophos and even some of the network security vendors, such as Fortinet and Barracuda Networks, will all start to aggressively target McAfee’s base.

It is unlikely that the proposed acquisition will affect security spending much over the next few years. Customers will still need a software protection layer on their devices as there is an inherent lack of trust with embedded security. Investors believe this to be true, hence the rise in dedicated security vendor acquisitions by venture capitalists. SonicWALL, Sophos and more recently AVAST, the anti-virus vendor, have all been taken private by investors.

Security is becoming critical across all technology areas, including mobility, communications, virtualization and cloud computing. Many vendors in these industries are quickly scaling their security capabilities through mergers and acquisitions or alliances with dedicated security vendors. But with the growing trend toward consolidation, the number of established dedicated security vendors continues to decrease, with Trend Micro and Check Point the only specialists left among the top five security vendors. The security market grew over 13% year-on-year in EMEA, outperforming many IT industries, and Canalys expects this segment of the market to continue to hold strong through the recovery. Integrating security onto chips and providing security at a virtual desktop level are certainly game changing, but by no means negate the need for dedicated security solutions.


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