Gartner: Best-of-Breed Security Tools May Be on Way Out

When it comes to security technologies, forget about best-of-breed tools. Think "best of need" instead.

That's the advice of Gartner Inc. analyst Neil MacDonald, who said last week that as antivirus, antispam and antispyware tools quickly become commodities, they may no longer justify the premium pricing associated with specialized technologies. MacDonald suggested at Gartner's IT Security Summit here that IT managers start looking for integrated products or services that combine multiple security functions without necessarily being best-in-class in each case.

Story continues

 

CJ Kelly: I have to disagree with Gartner's opinion that best-of-breed security tools are on their way out. Small to medium sized businesses cannot afford to plunk out the dough it takes to buy security tools for every layer...

To view the rest of the blog post, click the following link.
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/594064/131973/22511/0/

 

The first time that vendors integrated security package fails from a bad update or newly found exploit, all the savings in software costs and manhours go right out the window, not to mention what the security breach could cost. I don't envy the IT manager that chooses or is forced by upper management to take that approach. IMO, in a business/industrial environment, you can't afford not to use the best.
Rick

 

Do we know of any cases where this has happened?

In a large corporate environment, its hard to justify the expense of installing layered defense using multiple vendors if this does not occur.

 

Yea, I guess it makes sense in certain cases, it also depends on how good a certain apps incorporates all the different tools, look at KAV 6 for example it´s a great tool, you´ve got AV/AT/AS + HIPS, but still I think a separate firewall is a bit handier at the moment. Also, if a certain "all in one" tool has a serious security bug, your whole defense is in fact useless.