IBM to Buy ISS for $1.3 Billion 219
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."
Why would IBM... (Score:5, Funny)
...want a space station? To spy on Redmond?
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I laughed. I cried. I read TFA.
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No, silly, they want it for outsourcing. People in space work much cheaper than humans, plus they don't have anything but work to spend their spare time on. The only downside is that their English is really broken, though.
BTW, apparently Erich von Däniken [wikipedia.org] is their HR rep here on earth.
Re:Why would IBM... simple (Score:5, Funny)
Great move on the executives part!
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INT. REDMOND OFFICE. DAY.
SECRETARY: Mr Ballmer! Mr Ballmer! Please stop! You are ruining the paintwork on the ceiling with that chair...
Finally! A commercial reason for space habitats! (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps we've been looking in all the wrong places for the Right Stuff? The future of space is... cubicles!
Re:Finally! A commercial reason for space habitats (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Finally! A commercial reason for space habitats (Score:2)
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Re:Finally! A commercial reason for space habitats (Score:4, Insightful)
I for one (Score:2)
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Yeah, great! Now if we could just send the rest of the world's corporate executives in to outer space, we'd all live happily ever after.
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Re:Why would IBM... (Score:4, Funny)
The real question is ... (Score:2, Funny)
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So, basically, I thought, "What...? How would IBM Purchasing Microsoft's web server improve security for anyone?! Unless they're going to burry it deep."
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[1] One! Million! Dollars!
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Test what you have learned now: try to detemine the level of sarcasm in this post!
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Re:Why would IBM... (Score:4, Funny)
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It does require knowledge of the acronyms, but the jumbled mass of
Re:Why would IBM... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Why would IBM... (Score:4, Funny)
Rich
Obligatory (Score:3, Funny)
"Since the VP is such a VIP, maybe we should keep the PC on the QT. Otherwise he could go MIA, and we'd all end up on KP."
Sounds perfectly nonobfuscationalized to me.
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The phrase may be nonobfuscated, however your new-fangled word isn't
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Yeah, but the real word didn't seem... well, cromulent enough.
I guess I could have gone for nonantidisobfuscationalizapated.
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What rather took the edge off discovering that, for me, was that I'd already come up with a rather convoluted bit of DHTML to do exactly the same effect.
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Star Trek & IBM (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Re:Star Trek & IBM (Score:1)
IBM bought Internet Security Systems out of Atlanta, GA. They're a sizeable IDS solution provider and probably one of the biggest companies in the network security biz. A friend of mine works for them. I guess he'll be sporting a new big blue shirt
Re:Star Trek & IBM (Score:5, Insightful)
(Kirk looks sheepish)
Kirk: Doh!
(IBM rolls its eyes)
(Yes, of course I knew what TFA was talking about. The headline, however, was just too good to pass up!
Re:Star Trek & IBM (Score:4, Funny)
I just spewed coffee all over my monitor, you insensetive clod!
LOL! Very good post- funny, and gets back ontopic, yet is directly replying to offtopic posts. Well done, since I don't have mod points to give you now.
I also thought of the space station reading the summary, but then RTFA- no, no space station was harmed (or even used) in creating this article.
The article might have been more interesting if it was about IBM buying the space station- especially if they included Russia's response!
Re:Star Trek & IBM (Score:2)
Especially following a NASA article.
Re:Star Trek & IBM (Score:3, Funny)
No, no. You have it all wrong. The question Kirk asked was:
Kirk: Excuse me.....but what.... does....IBMneed....with...aspacestation?
The thing that's really funny: (Score:2)
Re:Star Trek & IBM -- What are you talking abo (Score:5, Funny)
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
Nice headline (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Nice headline (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice headline (Score:5, Funny)
International Business Machines
There, does that help?
Re:Nice headline (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice headline (Score:4, Interesting)
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No, I'm pretty sure Steve Ballmer works for Microsoft, not IBM...
[P.S.] Agree with other response, I'd always heard IBM stood for "I've been moved" as well.
You guys are so goofy! (Score:5, Funny)
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?
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Geez, everyone's telling the same lame "ISS" = "International Space Station" joke.
Shows that Slashdot is going to the dogs, Goofy, Pluto or other. Yeah, Ha Ha Ha, big yuks all around. It's probably a bit like hell, being told the same dumb joke over and over and over.
So the reality is, with Microsoft getting into the security biz, so is IBM. Looks like security companies are the new Hot Property.
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I'm sorry, but Pluto no longer qualifies as a dog and has been downgraded to some random body orbiting the sun...
and since pluton is already taken we will call this class of bodies... plutettes.
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The real reason behind the purchase... (Score:1, Offtopic)
Let Me Be... (Score:1, Offtopic)
In Soviet Russia, Space Station buys you!
All your space station are belong to IBM!
(Whatever happened to Natalie Portman? I hardly ever see her around here any more.)
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She opened up her own restaurant [slashdot.org]
Doesn't anybody pay attention around here?
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In Soviet Russia, Space Station buys you!
It is but a mir space station....
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All your space station are belong to IBM!
You missed some, let me help you:
I for one welcome our new Space-Station-owning overlords.
Does ISS run Linux?
Imagine a Beowolf cluster of space stations.
1. Sell Thinkpad to Lenovo
2. Buy International Space Station.
3. ????
4. Profit!!
Internet Security Systems (Score:5, Informative)
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Internet Security Systems! (The Article) (Score:2, Informative)
The all-cash transaction of about $28 per share is meant to bolster IBM's ability to deliver security services to corporations, the company said.
ISS builds network protection products and services, including intrusion detection and monitoring tools.
IBM said it intends to use ISS's expertise and software to provide more robust security-related services to its corporate customers.
"This acquisition will
In other news (Score:1)
You mean it's not the REAL space station? (Score:2, Funny)
It's not the first time this has happened.
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Was I the only one who DIDN'T Think Space Station? (Score:1)
As long as this buyout doesn't mean 15 more login screens with separate passwords to do anything internal, I'm down with it.
That's no Battle Station... (Score:4, Informative)
Internet Security Systems. www.iss.net
They do security. That is how IBM will derive security benefits from the purchase. At least that would be the going theory.
ISS has also apparently made a huge impression on Slashdot readers. *smirk*
Although buying a space station and fitting it with an Annihiliation Beam which they can use to hold the world for ransom to the tune of one... million... dollars, would seem to have some shareholder value as well, I didn't know that the shares in the Space Station were only 28$ a share. Or that shares even existed for the space station. It must be those wacky Russians trying to make another few million off space.
Pfffft! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
100% agree with you (Score:3, Informative)
As far as ISS goes on the IDS/IPS side, their products went from leader to lackluster. Snor
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For awhile, ISS was using us as beta testers. They'd give us a patch to install on a customer's box to "fix" the issue. Apparently they didn't bother testing these patches, and the kernel panics continued.
Fortunately, we were able to convince most of our customers to tell ISS to go fuck themselves.
Re:Pfffft! (Score:5, Informative)
> 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).
I'm guessing by "General Purpose" servers you are referring to the Network Sensor and Server Sensor products which could run on hardware you bought. The first Proventia appliance launched was the Proventia A, which was the Network Sensor software pre-installed on a rackmount, sold as a unit. In truth the Proventia A was not very different from the Network Sensor software because it was almost running the same software. The appliance came about because many customers did not wish to buy their own hardware -- they wished to have the appliance. On the other hand, many customers did still wish to buy their own hardware. Thus, Network Sensors, Server Sensors, and Proventia As are in fact all still fully supported. The exception is the slow phase-out of the least popular Nokia and Solaris platforms.
For more information on the Product Life Cycle of the above mentioned products, please see the Product Documentation for the product you're interested in:
Server Sensor -- http://www.iss.net/support/documentation/docs.php? product=15&family=7 [iss.net]
Network Sensor -- http://www.iss.net/support/documentation/docs.php? product=12&family=6 [iss.net]
Proventia A -- http://www.iss.net/support/documentation/docs.php? product=35&family=12 [iss.net]
Or for a full listing of products you can see the documentation for, please see: http://www.iss.net/support/documentation/index.php [iss.net]
There may have been some confusion on this point due to the wild popularity of the Proventia G and Proventia M products which is a completely different product and relies on completely different software. The older Network Sensor, Server Sensor, and Proventia A products are in fact still available, supported, and sold.
> 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.
I believe you may have to be more specific to help resolve your confusion here. Perhaps you were on one of the least-popular platforms of Nokia or Solaris which has been slowly phased out to improve support for more popular products? Based on your mention of appliances, I can only guess you had a Network Sensor (since there is no such thing as a Server Sensor appliance)? The first appliances that came out were the Proventia As, which ran pretty much the same exact software as the Network Sensor software. So your frustration was perhaps due to the hardware? As I mentioned above, the Network Sensor software on many platforms including Linux is still fully supported.
> 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
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Site Protector is (IMHO) a bloated piece of crap. I don't like security software that will only run on Windows (only recently supporting W2k3 SP1), requires SQL Server, and can't be accessed in any useful manner from a non-Windows
Re:Pfffft! (Score:5, Insightful)
Knifing the Nokia relationship left lots of enterprise customers in the dust, not because it was done, but it was done while 1) the product was still being actively pushed by both companies, and 2) without an assessment of what impact it would have on the customer base. Let's face it, the Nokia stuff was axed because ISS wanted to enter the appliance space, without regard to existing deployments. I still remember the arrogant tact of ISS's sales staff when they approached us with the news AND a quote for replacing all of our deployments with Proventia -- it was 20% higher than our TCO on Nokia! That was, and still is, a bad BUSINESS move, and left a lot of customers with a bad taste in their mouths about ISS. That aside...
I find your assertion about the Proventia G and M being "wildly popular" a bit dubious for a product that has only had about a year and a half in the market (and, yes, I'm counting that from the launch of the G400 and G2000 -- as an enterprise customer, they're the only ones we every considered). I talk with a lot of ISS customers. The big ones -- the truly big ones -- consider themselves saddled with their Proventia investment. They see other vendors coming in providing multi-gigabit solutions that operate at wire speeds on all packet sizes... They see IPS functionality being rolled into core switch fabrics, some of them on general purpose blades... They begin to wonder why they're invested in edge IPS when their firewalls are starting to gain the same feature functionality... And they get angry when a Core update munges their SiteProtector AGAIN... Leave the assessment of "wildly popular" to the point in time when these users report themselves as being totally satisfied with the investment they've made, not because our installed base is X^2 instead of X.
I know you've still got a "general purpose" network sensor out there. We used to run a few of those, until we had little nagging issues with XPUs where the proposed solution was "get to Proventia" because "that's where the development is being done now". And although your Network Sensor has an "inline mode," I know for a fact that your sales force actively steers people away from using it as an IPS. Having a product available is not the same as being able to provide undeniably good support for it -- just ask CA about that one.
As for the BlackICE (nee Desktop Protector, nee Proventia Desktop) installation, hey; what can I say? I wish we could all adopt a product at a point along its lifespan where everything is as we want it. But that didn't happen for us -- and for other customers (mostly bleeding-edge adopters). To speak to the "integration" with SiteProtector, I'd say the selling point there is relatively limited compared to what it was proposed to be when sold to us. But what do I know? I'm just a guy that has to redeploy a bunch of crap that will be replaced by GPO-managed Windows firewall rules and next-gen platform health checking that Microsoft will eventually give us for free. For the second time.
Thanks for the response, though.
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That just makes ISS cheaper to acquire for IBM. IBM don't have to be especially interested in some of those issues such as forcing customers to buy ISS hardware as they can bundle it instead with IBM solutions. This just makes IBM more vertically integrated. There's a few more things that they are in control of.
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What do you want to bet there's a patent the company held that they were after?
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70% hype, 1% function, 29% dark matter. Why is this different? It's shrink-wrap around a buzzword around a marketing gap.
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I didn't say that the companies I mentioned were on the bleeding edge, just that they're making serious inroads against ISS. Hell, all Cisco has to do is sneeze together an IPS solution and lots of companies would buy it based solely on the label and the fact that it fits into their Catalyst (and I would argue that they did exactly that with their current product lines). Last time I checked, wasn't Cisco now selling more IDS/IPS gear than anyone else in terms of
I didn't know. . . (Score:1, Redundant)
Why 1.3 billion is no money at all... (Score:2, Informative)
Serious Comment (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Worth that much? (Score:1)
Also for this article can we add a filtering setting: "read at no reference to space stations"?
Now it's your turn... (Score:2, Funny)
Back in the day... (Score:5, Funny)
e-Business Consultants on a Space Station ! (Score:2)
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A Missing Link (Score:2)
Fight Club (Score:2)
Narrator (Jack): When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be the corporations that name everything: the IBM stellar-sphere, the Microsoft galley, the planet Starbucks.
w00t!
Rods from God (Score:2)
That's not Internet Security Systems.... (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:I can see it now. (Score:5, Funny)
That's only because there isn't a -1 Obvious.
Now, back to my job at NASA [sawingassociation.com].
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To quote Rosanne Rosannadanna.... (Score:2)
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