EMC Buys RSA Security for $2.1B

jam244 writes to mention the news of RSA's purchase by EMC. The deal is expected to go through in late third or early fourth quarter of 2006. Once folded into the company, RSA will act as the company's information security division. From the article: "Stice said the proposed price for RSA was 'somewhat expensive,' but added that the deal has the potential to improve EMC's business mix, broaden its product portfolio and further penetrate the consumer security storage market."

Good news... probably

[andrewman327]

It is nice to see EMC moving a large part of its security stuff in house. I cannot say exactly what this will mean for the end user, but I hope that it will make security more integrated and, of course, more secure.

Same guys that bought VMWARE

[dilute]

Watch for EMC to become a dominant player in the IT market, going way beyond disk drives and data storage. These folks are making some very strategic acquisitions.

Novell Directory Service [eDirectory]

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

Same guys that bought VMWARE

Novell, with somewhere between 100 million & 200 million installed seats of Novell Directory Services ["eDirectory"], has got to be the world's leading vendor of RSA-based identification, authorization, and encryption products.

So if Novell ever goes belly-up [slashdot.org], then it seems like EMC might be very interested in the bankruptcy sale.

Oh, and did I mention that Novell has this software product called "Novell Storage Services"?

What will this mean for the products

[kinneh]

I'm guessing some of the product's will get cut off. Going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Most of the Keon family will get cut off, at least the toolkits [rsasecurity.com] with openssl [openssl.org] and boncycastle [bouncycastle.org] as options for customers.
The big question is if the CA too will be cut-off... there is lots of viable options here too Ejbca [ejbca.org] for example <shameless plug>There is commercial support available</shameless plug>.

Re:Same guys that bought VMWARE

[tgd]

EMC is not about disk drives and data storage, they're about central control of information technology.

Look at all their market moves and aquisitions with that understanding, and they all make sense.

They are focused as a laser beam right now.

*Spock turns from his scope and says...*

[Akardam]

"Captain, I'm detecting enormous levels of marketspeak and a high buzzword quotient from this article summary. It is highly illogical."

Encrypted SAN traffic? Tasty!

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting.. Could the day be far off when EMC offers a SAN solution that does front-to-back encryption? Encrypted on the platter, stays encrypted through your SAN, and gets decrypted at the multipath layer?

That way, they could argue that they not only keep your storage secure physically, but logically as well. For shops that have geographically-spanned SANs, this could be a helluva selling point.

Trying hard.....

[Anonymous Coward]

EMC is trying really really hard to be a software company as hardware margins are constantly under pressure. In last couple of years, they have coughed up billions to buy companies like Documentum, VMWare, etc. which, seriously, were of questionable value to the company. To me, the company's acquistions look clueless.

oh, good... (*to self: aaaauuuggghhhh!!!!!)

[xeno]

My old security consultancy was assimilated by Symantec. Our technological and biological distinctiveness was added to their own. Our individuality was irrelevant. We didn't even get to keep a sub-brand ("@stake, a Symantec Company") like Norton did. Now we're lost in the homogeneous blob. Of course, that was a now-obvious screw-up, because the sales people still say things like "our professional services staff is based on the expertise of @stake..." It's great for little yellow boxes of product, but two years on, the Symantec name still doesn't stand on its own with respect to security consulting. Not when commissions depend on it.

The people at McAfee/NA were a bit brighter about it, and the value of the Foundstone name and reputation wasn't squandered as badly as it could have been when they got bought out. Sure Foundstone shed people just as @stake did, but there's a world of difference. They decided to follow perceived distinctiveness as a tool for selling consulting, and perceived ubiquity as a tool to sell products; the names differentiate them.

Good luck to RSA. I'm sure they'll keep the name, expand their consulting services and probably give us a hell of a run for our money. (What with EMC already competing with Veritas/Symantec...) It's gonna be an interesting time.

J

*Best line this week: "If you're happy and you know it, stick with your current dosage."

Re:Same guys that bought VMWARE

[PCM2]

You might think. But they aren't doing it. Their policy is hands off -- VMware stands pretty much on its own.