Prevention’s Better than Detection

It has been a year and a half since Network Associates acquired McAfee.com,

and one was beginning to wonder for how long the company intended playing only

on the anti-virus turf. Mercifully, for watchers, the wait is over. Network

Associates has launched Netasyst, and has chosen to label the category as ‘intrusion

prevention solution’. Does the nomenclature smack of Network Associates’

keenness to distance itself from the intrusion detection systems (IDS) category?

Given the fact that the Indian IDS market hovered around the Rs 10 crore mark

during the fiscal 2002—03, one would not blame Network Associates for touting

a new category. However, a closer look at the product and its capabilities, as

described by Network Associates, would reveal that the company is eying

something more than the obvious.

And what could that be? The software has been described as a "network

analyzer" and a "network performance solution". Network

Associates has attempted to pack certain features in Netasyst that have so far

been available from network security service providers only, but is probably not

confident enough to flaunt them. However, Karthik Sahani, sales director

(India), Network Associates, says, "Netasyst allows small- and mid-sized

businesses with many of the features and functionalities that large-scale

enterprises use to manage, secure and plan the growth of their networks."

So Ashley Wearne, area V-P, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and India,

Network Associates, who was in India, to announce the Netasyst launch, did have

some merit in his claim that the product didn’t have a clear-cut competition.

According to a recently released IDC report, the security software market in

India is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 24.1 %over the next five years to reach

a size of around $43 million by 2007. The report estimated the security software

market for H1 2003 at $11.3 million, an increase of about 30% over H2 2002.

Deepak Kumar