NetWitness and ipoque Acquisitions Show That Network Intelligence Technology is Becoming Crucial

Recently, there have been some interesting movements among vendors who leverage DPI and network intelligence technology.

Last month, EMC acquired NetWitness: http://netwitness.com/about/press-releases/2011-emc-acquires-netwitness-corporation. Netwitness is a leading network security analysis vendor who has been using DPI inside their solutions. According to the following article in Network World http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/032411-emc-netwitness.html, EMC’s strategy is to strengthen RSA’s enVision SIEM offering with "an additional source of network activity" and "another angle on analysis.” This confirms the need for real-time network intelligence for cyber security applications. Will this lead to further M&A in this sector, involving companies like Solera or Niksun? We’ll see. In any case, I think SIEM vendors (Arcsight, Q1 Labs, LogLogic, CA, etc.) will take a closer look at DPI and Network Intelligence technology to enhance their products.

This week, Rohde & Schwarz announced the acquisition of ipoque:http://www.ipoque.de/news-and-events/news. ipoque sells mainly vertical solutions such as their PRX traffic management solution (with DPI inside), but also supply their Protocol and Application Decoding Engine (PADE) to vendors in an OEM model. It will be interesting to observe the strategic evolution of the ipoque product portfolio as part of Rohde & Schwarz’s offering: will they decide to increase focus on QoS solutions? Will they continue to sell PADE?

I think we will soon see more consolidation among vendors who leverage DPI and Network Intelligence technology. These are interesting developments – stay tuned.


Jerome