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IBM to Buy ISS for $1.3 Billion
gerald626 writes "IBM announced today that they have formed an agreement to purchase ISS for 1.3 billion dollars." From the article: " The all-cash transaction of about $28 per share is meant to bolster IBM's ability to deliver security services to corporations, the company said. ISS builds network protection products and services, including intrusion detection and monitoring tools. IBM said it intends to use ISS's expertise and software to provide more robust security-related services to its corporate customers."
...want a space station? To spy on Redmond?
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
IBM: This ISS, could it carry my wisdom beyond the Internet?
Sybok: It could. Yes.
IBM: Then I shall make use of this... ISS.
Sybok: It will be your chariot!
(Kirk politely raises his hand.)
Kirk: Excuse me.
IBM: It will carry my power to every corner of creation...
Kirk: Excuse me! I'd just like to ask a question!
(McCoy looks at Kirk like he just farted in church.)
Kirk: Excuse me, but What does IBM need with a space station?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Maybe in this case it would be wise to spell out the acronym, so we don't all have a tizzy that they're buying *THE* ISS, the one orbiting the Earth.
stuff |
Geez, everyone's telling the same lame "ISS" = "International Space Station" joke.
It's just a typo! Haven't you figured that out yet? IBM simply bought IIS from Microsoft. I wonder if they'll make IIS run on Linux?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
There are going to be millions of mod point used on -1 Redundant.
That's only because there isn't a -1 Obvious.
Now, back to my job at NASA.
This tagline is copyrighted material. Please send $10 for an affordable replacement.
It is internet security systems: http://iss.net/ I hope blackice remains as a pc firewall, I think it is one of the best
Free yourself use open source.
IBM's decision to buy the ISS was a fantastic decision. They can now freely ignore the Sarbanes Oxlley laws as well as Monopoly and other laws in every country as the IBM headquarters will not be located in outer space making them immune to earth laws.
Great move on the executives part!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is a horrible move on IBM's part.
ISS is having its clock cleaned in the market, pulled apart by high-performance enterprise IPS vendors (Tipping Point, Juniper, Cisco, and the like) on one side, and having their thunder stolen by platform security vendors (Sygate, Check Point, Netscreen, and, yes, even Cisco) on the other -- not to mention the "built-in" stuff that Microsoft has released and the more advanced platform security controls that the company is prepping for release.
Not too long ago, ISS made the fateful decision to knife most of its IDS/IPS product lines in the back by discontinuing support for "General Purpose" servers and third party appliances, effectively forcing all of its enterprise customers to buy an "owned" ISS appliance (the Proventia series). Companies with large deployments of ISS RealSecure on now End of Lifed platforms suddenly found themselves offered a year of update support and another capital outlay to "upgrade" to Proventia appliances. Not many followed the company down that path, but the ones that did get "first cut" appliances found that they, well, sucked. The company then recentered on a more "appliance"-looking hardware platform, but, by then, the damage was done.
Then ISS took a market-leading desktop security product, BlackICE, and folded it into their IDS/IPS management product. The integration damn near killed a lot of existing BlackICE customers, not to mention the fact that succeeding software releases were, in many cases, incompatible with previous releases. Those customers who bravely rolled out a BlackICE installation found themselves in the unenviable position of having to do the rollout all over again.
Then there's ISS's reputation for "leading-edge" security research. Enter the firing of Michael Lynn related to the Cisco BlackHat presentation... They look like idiots out of the whole ordeal, more interested in protecting their corporate butts from the Cisco PR engine than the disclosure of even SANTITIZED security information.
IBM? Good luck with your new toy. It was broken before you bought it.
At the risk of disrupting the fun, I'd like to interject a serious comment. ISS resells some real security technologies that IBM has been missing from their offerings for a long time. In the network security space, they resell some important technology that has traditionally been in the "Cisco camp" and thus mostly implemented by enterprise customers that don't do a lot of business with IBM. This could really change the landscape of enterprise security... in a few years when IBM manages to get ISS integrated into their sales channels.
when I first started working in infosec (5, 6 years ago) I spent a lot of time downloading and playing with the free trials for various vuln scanners - ISS, Retina, LANGuard and so on. I mentioned this to someone with more security experience who replied "ISS? It's Still Shit, right?"
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
You may have hit on something here -- if all the world's megacorps decided they needed jurisdiction-free headquarters in space, the problem of humanity being stuck on planet Earth would be solved! Before this decade is out, we could have a space-based population consisting of hundreds of thousands of CxOs, lawyers, accountants, and their support staff.
Perhaps we've been looking in all the wrong places for the Right Stuff? The future of space is... cubicles!
It the start of the "B" Ark. Every one know where their towel is.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
That sounds like it might have been between ST: IV and ST: VI, but we all know that there was no movie in between ST: IV and ST: VI .
It didn't happen, okay!
-Ster