ForeScout and PatchLink customers speak

A few security executives have talked with me over the last two weeks. While I cannot disclose the actual customer interviewed, or share everything we talked about, you may find some of their experiences interesting. After all, there is only so much writing about acquisitions I can do!

ForeScout is a startup that produces a NAC appliance with worm storm mitigation technology. The customer is in the media and entertainment industry, has sites distributed across the US, and has most of its endpoints under management (that is relatively few partner or outsourced connections to the network). The main buying motivation for the customer was to contain malicious outbreaks, with tight control of endpoints of much less concern. Curiously, this customer feels their SOX effort is under control now and that the configuration control aspects of NAC are not always worth the administration costs. This customer reinforced for me that NAC should be more about controlling adherent endpoint behavior, and less about profile management.

PatchLink is an established provider of patch management solutions. The customer I talked with hails from the healthcare industry, and had a problem keeping up with the sheer numbers of patches for multiple thousands of nodes. PatchLink won the hotly contested business in part based on the ability to validate that patches were successfully applied and have not been subsequently removed. This customer knows their stuff, the conversation also included a good discussion on securing a virtual server environment. My takeaway was a reminder that C-level executives pay attention to fundamental security procedures, and the cost savings that automating best practices can deliver to the business.

It was an interesting contrast between the two interviews. ForeScout's customer requires technology to accurately react faster than a human ever could, while PatchLink's customer requires thoroughness and automation to take the costs out of a process. Security can be an interesting blend of good approaches to ensuring that the customer network is open for business.