Gartner Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateways - May 2012

Gartner released its Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateways on May 24    ID:G00234572.  You can’t say that there was a clear winner among the companies in the Leaders Quadrant.  Zscaler remained the highest ranked with respect to Completeness of Vision, and Cisco from the perspective of Ability to Execute.  Websense and Blue Coat were sandwiched in between with McAfee also in the Leaders Quadrant.  

Among the usual suspects, Webroot was dropped from the grid (must meet those revenue thresholds, people) and M86 Security is now part of Trustwave.  Barracuda is now in a more favorable position than Trend  Micro in the Challengers part of the quadrant.  Overall, though, there  wasn’t a lot of movement between the companies represented on the Quadrant.  

Companies evaluating alternatives  should look at the report for the Strengths and Cautions highlighted by Gartner.  It’s also interesting  to look at the previous year’s report,   to see whether vendors you’re evaluating dealt with any of the Cautions Gartner brought up for vendors you may have  under evaluation. 

According to Gartner, The market is  led by  on-premises solutions with 87% of the market with SWG as a service representing the remainder.  Gartner  see’s  the SaaS alternative growing at 35% in fiscal 2012.

Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW) from companies such as  SonicWall and Palo Alto Networks were not included in the reports,  as these are primarily firewalls.  People interested in the growing evolution of this technology and SWG’s, should acquire the Gartner Report  "Next-Generation Firewalls and Secure Web Gateways Will Not Converge Before 2015,"  ID Number: G00212272.  Palo Alto Networks   positions  their NGFW solutions  as making the need to acquire a secure web gateway unnecessary. Unrelated side note - There have to be discussions by Palo Alto Networks people and the "smartest guys in the room" about their pending IPO (Initial Public Offering) after the recent Facebook IPO. Predictions - there will be a Harvard Business School case study and the phrases "pop" and "money on the table" will appear in a lot more articles on future IPOs.

How Do You Use A Gartner Magic Quadrant?

The below is from a Research Methodologies piece  on utilizing Magic Quadrants.  Too often,  a pic of the quadrant will make its way onto a slide deck with no explanation. 

 

Clients use Magic Quadrants as a first step to understanding the technology providers they might consider for a specific investment opportunity.Keep in mind that focusing on the leaders' quadrant isn't always the best course of action.  There are good reasons to consider market challengers.  And a niche player may support your needs better than a market leader.  It all depends on how the provider aligns with your business goals.

http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/research_mq.jsp

 

Those wanting a full copy of the report can go to Gartner or register with vendors such as Zscaler for read access to the report. Let the issuing of press releases begin. 

 http://www.zscaler.com/Gartner-Magic-Quadrant-Secure-Web-Gateway.html?src=WEB_HOME

 

SonicWall and Check Point Top Network World Clear Choice Test - Next Generation Firewalls - Best of Interop 2012

In the Network World Clear  Choice Test on Next Generation Firewalls, SonicWall was the top performer when it came to throughput (Part 1).  Check Point’s Check Point Security Gateway received the top score  in Part 2. Joel Snyder  did a deep dive looking at and testing Application Identification and Control.  Other companies in the Clear Choice Test, SonicWall (purchased by Dell from Thoma Bravo a couple of months ago), Fortinet, Check Point Software, and Barracuda Networks. This is a great two part article. (Scroll down for Best of Interop 2012 list)

David Newman wrote in Part 1 that   SonicWall    “Comes out on top in performance tests, but trade-offs remain”.  One of the Newman’s overall conclusions was that next generation firewalls are getting faster, and the tradeoff between speed and security is definitely getting smaller, but that these tradeoffs still exist.    

Network World used Spirent Avalanche traffic generator to measure content handling in a number of different configurations.  This was for Mixed Content HTTP handling and Static HTTP content handling.  Fortinet and SonicWall tended to have far superior performance in the tests over Check Point, and Barracuda Networks.  Newman includes a number of tables showing test results for throughput  in Part 1.

Seven features were tested as Part 2 of the Clear Choice Test:: Anti-Malware and URL Filtering, Intrusion Prevention, SSL Decryption, Next-Generation Application Identification, Basic Firewall Features, IPv6 Feature Set, and Next-Generation Visibility.  The final rankings and weighted average scores (top score possible, 5.0) were:

1. 4.1 – Check Point Security Gateway
2. 3.9 – SonicWall SonicOS
3. 3.8 – Fortinet Fortigate
4. 3.2 – Barracuda NG Firewall

Palo Alto Networks, the   company most associated with the phrase Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), was not in the Clear Choice Test on Next Generation Firewalls.  However, Snyder wrote,  “We stand by our original PA-5060 test headline back in August.  Palo Alto earns short list status.  If you are considering replacing your firewall to gain next generation features, Palo Alto remains a credible contender.”  The test methodology was a bit different last August. BTW,  not a lot of new information about Palo Alto Networks and their proposed initial public offering (IPO).

 

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/050712-firewall-test-palo-alto-258621.html

 Check Point’s product was superior when it came to Anti-Malware and URL Filtering, Intrusion Prevention, and Basic Firewall Functions.  SonicWall was the top product in SSL Decryption.  They tied on Next Generation Application Identification.

 “The Check Point Security Gateway has a fantastic management interface for application identification and control,” according to Joel Snyder.  He found  their product    much easier to use than the other products   tested.

SonicWall, "Would have had a higher score if its application identification GUI wasn't so poorly designed”  Snyder wrote.

“SonicWall has so many sub-divisions of every application, none of which were documented or made any sense to us, that we gave it a failing score when we tried to allow end users to see Facebook, but not post to it — one of vendor marketing's favorite examples of why a next-generation firewall is a good idea.  It was possible to block Facebook completely, but you can do that with a URL filter — you don't need a next-generation firewall." 

Some next generation firewall vendors take the position that with their products, you don't need the URL filtering capabilities provided by such vendors as Websense, McAfee and  Blue Coat Systems. Of course, they'll choose to differ!

According to  Snyder, “the defining characteristic of a next-generation firewall is the ability to identify and control traffic at the application layer.”  Network World    designed a suite of 40 tests in nine categories to see how well the firewalls would come out.  No product stopped all 40.  SonicWall was able to stop 26 for the top score.

About the Testing

In the first part of this test, vendors submitted their biggest, fastest boxes to David Newman's lab in California for performance testing.  Vendors were allowed to send a smaller, lighter device within the same product family to Joel Snyder's Arizona lab for features testing.There are links in both parts of the test providing details about test methodologies.

Part One – “Fast-forwarding firewall faceoff” was done by David Newman.

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/042312-firewalls-test-258120.html

  

Part Two of “Next-Gen Firewalls, Off to a Good Start” was done by Joel Snyder.

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/050712-firewall-test-258613.html

 

Joel Snyder, a Network World Test Alliance partner, is a senior partner at Opus One in Tucson, Ariz. He can be reached at Joel.Snyder@opus1.com .

Both parts of the test are well worth reading.  Read them in conjunction with the test that NSS labs performed and released during RSA San Francisco."SonicWall, Palo Alto Networks Top Performers in New NSS NGFW Study – Block Rate vs. Price per Protected Mbps".  

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/sonicwall-palo-alto-networks-top.htm

 

Best of Interop 2012 Awards  - Las Vegas

Below is the list of winners for Best of Interop 2012. These were announced during Interop  Las Vegas. 16 editors evaluated the 130 plus entrants for the Best of Interop Awards.

Best of Interop

NEC ProgrammableFlow PF6800 Controller

NEC Corporation of America

Security  Winner

McAfee Network Security XC Cluster

McAfee

Best Startup Company

V3 Systems

Cloud Computing & Virtualization Winner

Citrix VDI-in-a-Box

Citrix Systems

Collaboration Winner

Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Conversation            

Alcatel-Lucent

Data Center & Storage Winner

Panzura Quicksilver Global Cloud Storage System v3.0

Panzura

Management, Monitoring & Testing Winner

NEC ProgrammableFlow PF6800 Controller

NEC Corporation of America

Networking Winner

GS0072 Switch

Gnodal

Performance Optimization Winner

AppNav Virtualization Technology

Cisco Systems

Wireless & Mobility Winner

XpressConnect Enrollment System

Cloudpath Networks

http://www.bestofinterop.com/