Why Network Security Vendors Should Stay Away From End Point Security, and Vice-Versa

Interesting article.

 

Author makes good arguments but he misses the bigger picture. It's not about dominating the security market. It's about product diversification. Plain business.

Vendors don't make acquisitions or expand into other fields expecting each of them to be sucessful investment. That's not how it works.
Acquisitions are meant as a form of expansion. A quick way to increase pool of talent and work from there to achieve greater heights; building brand awareness and increasing market share (no matter how small it may be in a particular target segment). Objective is to kill or minimize the competition rather than risk it becoming a bigger risk. Make your enemy your friend. Point is you don't have to be the best in everything. You just have to make sure you live in the industry long enough to gain recognition, even if you excel in a minor area.

Look at Google. Started out as search engine. Now, it's practically everywhere.

The problem is not lack of expertise. It's a problem of management. How the companies divide/separate their different employees and product groups matter.

 

His point was that since vendors can't be the best in everything, they shouldn't be involved aka "stay away".

My point is vendors don't need to be told of this fact. They already know they can't be the best in all; but they don't care as they don't need to. They just need to be good enough to survive in the long run. They can be master of one but still be a jack of all trades.