Rational Survivability

[Editor’s Note: I really found myself getting suckered into the darkside of this debate when it turned into a BS marketing spin fest and personal bashing session from the other party.  I shouldn’t have responded to those elements, but I did.  I’m guilty.  It was stupid.  Stupid, but strangely satisfying.  Much like tequila.  I still got zero answers to any of the points I raised, so you decide for yourself…]

Looks like Alex Neihaus, Astaro’s VP of Marketing, can’t be bothered to address technical criticism or answer questions debating the utility of approach for Astaro’s new "virtual UTM appliance," so he feels it necessary to hang his "shingle" out in public and launch personal attacks rather than address the issue at hand.  Well, he is in marketing so why would I expect anything different.

Since my comments back to him may not actually make it up on his site, I figure I’ll respond to them here; they won’t be word for word because I forgot to copy/paste my response in terms of what I sent him. 

Jungian synchronicity always blows me away. I was just reading about "intermittent explosive disorder" this morning. It’s apparently severely undiagnosed.

Except at Crossbeam. Apparently, Christofer Hoff, their brand-spankin’ new "chief security strategist" (aka
"we want a Scoble of our own") is deeply worried about virtualization
and the impact on Crossbeam. Ergo, a demonstration of IED in the
blogosphere via a post on his personal blog.

Funny.  I was just reading about  rectal encephalic inversion and in a Freudian twist of fate, Alex’s slip is showing.

As I let him know, I’ve been at Crossbeam for 8 months and before that, I was a customer for almost 3 years deploying their products in the real world, not preaching about them from behind a web interface.  Prior to that I ran an MSSP/Security Consultancy for 9 years, did two other startups, raised venture capital, and built the global managed security service for a worldwide service provider on 4 continents serving 152 countries.  Yet I digress…

But let me say we don’t mind the heat, in fact, we appreciate it.
But next time, Chris, why not post on the Crossbeam site? Why not
change your bio on your blog to indicate your new role? And before you
impugn Richard Stiennon’s credibility, why not earn some in your new
role? I am, of course, fair game, but to wail on Richard isn’t cricket.

Crossbeam doesn’t have blog capabilities yet.  When we do, it will cross-post.  I don’t try to hide what I do or who I do it for at all.  Where exactly on the Scrapture blog does it say that you are the VP of Marketing for Astaro, Alex?

Also, this ain’t my first ride on a tuna boat, pal.  While I haven’t had the privilege of peddling FTP software for a living, I know a thing or two about security — designing, deploying, managing and using it.  As I mentioned in the comments I sent you, everyone’s a dog on the Internet, Alex, and you’re pissing on the wrong hydrant.

In terms of Richard, I know him.  I talk to him reasonably often.  We’re a client.  Nice reach.  I wasn’t impugning his honor, I was pointing out that the quote you used didn’t have a damned thing to do with Astaro.

I do appreciate you taking umbrage at the "ASIC-free" phrase in the
press release. I put that in to see if it would raise any neck hair.
It’s the crux of the issue.

You apparently think that hardware is the answer. I know it isn’t.

Firstly, Crossbeam doesn’t depend on ASIC’s in our products, so your assumption I was bristling at the comment because I need to be defensive about ASIC’s is as wrong as your assertion/innuendo that ASICs actually make things go slower. 

More importantly, your assertion that I think hardware is the answer is, again, dead wrong.  If you knew anything about Crossbeam, you’d recognize that the secret sauce in our solution is the software, not the hardware.  The hardware is nice, but it’s not the answer.

There’s always a more powerful engine. Always a more powerful
subsystem. Always better, always cheaper. Businesses built on
mainframes can be profitable, but never ubiquitous in the face of
commoditized hardware. IBM learned this in the 1990’s; Crossbeam will
learn it shortly. After you’ve sold the Fortune 500 five-hundred units,
you’ll inevitably be stuck for growth. You’ll cast about for the broad
middle.

Ummm, you know squat-all about Crossbeam — that much is obvious.  We’ve sold many more than 500 units and our customer base is split 50/50 between ISP/MO’s/Telco’s and the Fortune 2000 — doubling revenues year after year for 6 years in a space that is supposedly owned by Cisco and Juniper is a testament to the rediculousness of your statement.   I’m shivering in anticpation of our impending doom…by a bunch of VMWare images running on a DL380 no less.

That broad middle will be using commoditized hardware with
integrated, easy-to-use security solutions.

Hey!  We agree about something.  Again, if you knew anything about our product, our roadmap or our technololgy, you’d recognize this.

You’ll talk about
"enterprise ready" to people who want the UTM equivalent of a fax
machine.

Buhahahaha!  A fax just arrived for you.  It’s titled "It’s sure as hell easier to have a high-end solution and scale down than it is to have a low-end solution and scale up!"  Sound familiar?  VMWare ain’t it, bubba. 

Wail all you want how unfortunate it is that UTM is associated with SMB (I agree that’s wrong, wrong, wrong). But the answer to UTM ubiquity isn’t gonna come from the high end.

Sorry. And don’t let that IED problem get you down.

UTM is associated with low-end perimeter solutions that don’t scale and require forklifts due to the marginalization of commoditized hardware.  When you have a solution that actually scales, can sit in a network for 6 years without forklifts, and is in place at the biggest networks on the planet, step up.

Otherwise, do me a favor and respond in kind technically to my points regarding manageablility, security, and scalability…or have Gert or Markus (Astaro’s CSA and CTO) do it, at least we can have a debate about something meaningful.

/Chris