More security aquisitions

HP announced this morning that it would buy ArcSight. This follows Intel’s acquisition of McAfee last month. This isn’t the first time a large computer maker/systems offering has purchased a security company, but what does it mean for our industry? Will it mean that McAfee will only run on Intel computers (not that there are many others..)? Or that ArcSight will only be available on HP systems? Or will the companies operate fairly independently and we won’t see much in the way of changes for consumers (and businesses)?

I’m really hoping that the industry stays fairly open, allowing cross-platform interoperability between systems and products. It allows customers to select the best non-security system for their needs, and then allow them to select the best security product/offering for their needs. Contrary to what some people think – this is important in business. The business folks barely consider security when they spec out systems. The security folks are generally brought in later to fix things. As much as this is not the ideal situation, it *is* the situation in most cases, and until business processes improve, that’s the way it’ll stay.

Or maybe this’ll make businesses reconsider that?