Lets clear the air

Mitchell and the rest of our StillSecure RSA team were delayed flying home to Colorado last night/this morning.  So I was surprised to see a fresh post from Mitchell this morning.  When I read it, it was plain to me that something got Mitchell going about what Vernier and Lockdown was saying.  Mitchell is from Nebraska and his midwest demeanor will usually kick in before he gets in someones face too much.  So, I had to have a look at what got Mitchell going.  It seems in the case of Lockdown Networks, it is some quotes from Dan Clark, VP of marketing over in a story on Internet News by Sean Michael Kerner. I read what Dan has to say and I just have to address this and some conversations I had at RSA. I usually don't pile on Mitchell's posts but this one demands it.

First of all, a little history.  Lockdown Networks was founded by Brett Helsel and Rob Gilde.  I actually know Rob pretty well and have met and chatted with Brett several times. A couple of months ago, Lockdown put out a particularly BS press release talking about their financial performance and how great their numbers were.  I called them on it, saying private companies talking about how much they have grown are meaningless without putting real numbers on the table.  Brett, Lockdown's CEO, evidently was pissed about me taking them to task on it.  I wrote in a subsequent post that I am sorry they were offended and that I meant nothing personal by it, but I call them as I see them.  Now, fast forward to RSA this week.  Lockdown's booth was just a few rows from us.  I ran into Rob Gilde who mentioned how disappointed he and Brett were.  I tried to tell Rob it was not personal.  They choose to spend their money trying to influence people about how successful they are.  I chose to use my blog as a bully pulpit to influence people with my view of the truth.  If they have a problem with that and feel that because we are "friends" they get a free pass, sorry Charlie, it don't work like that.  Then on top of it I passed Brett in the hall and said hello and he ignored me.  I guess he is still pissed.  Hey that is fine.  A lesson we learn early on in NY, is better to be pissed off than pissed on.  As I said, I call them as I see them.

So with that out of the way, let me talk about what Dan Clark said. First lets look at what the quote is:

Lockdown's VP of Marketing Dan Clark argued that, as opposed to others among Microsoft's partners, Lockdown is differentiated because the product is a purpose-built solution as opposed to a feature in an overall product designed for something else.

The last two years has seen a dramatic explosion in the number of vendors that claim to do some form of NAC.

"At the last RSA, the number of vendors who said they did NAC began to explode," Clark told internetnews.com. "When we started there was just us and Cisco. By the end of 2005 there were maybe 15 companies that said they did access control. By the end of RSA 2006 there were 60."

Dan Clark is not Lockdown's first marketing guy. He was not even there when the whole NAC thing started or at the start of the company.  So I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he is not talking from his own personal knowledge and just repeating what others have told him, instead of flat out not being truthful.  But Dan, let me set you straight. Oh, and by the way if you want to call me on it, feel free, you know I have the background to prove what I am saying and don't mind putting it out for all to see.  Fact is Dan, purpose built NAC is the furthest thing from the truth in Lockdowns case.  I remember being asked for an opinion by VCs who were looking at Lockdown as to what I thought of the play before they even launched.  They were plainly a vulnerability management play. In fact the whole Nessus thing, as you probably are aware, was how I originally met Rob. Lockdown was clearly another vulnerability management play in the image of nCircle, Foundstone, our own VAM product, etc.  Fact is the model failed miserably, but they did have a handful of customers using the product for that (I think it was either FBI or Army that looked at it in a small roll out).  Then when the NAC market started heating up, Lockdown repurposed their vulnerability technology and jumped the NAC bandwagon.  They went through a whole web site rebranding at the time, so have a look at the old web sites. In case you don't have access to them, I did you the favor of going to The WayBack machine and bringing up some older copies for you.  You can have a look here and here at two different versions. By the way they are from 2004 around your launch and then from 2005 and there ain't a NAC in sight.  But Dan if you need more proof, here are some press releases and articles from pre-NAC Lockdown.  Here is one and here is another. Oh by the way here is the Lockdown tag line from the press release I referenced:

About Lockdown Networks, Inc.

Lockdown(TM) Networks, Inc. is the leader in next-generation appliance-based vulnerability management for protecting wired and wireless enterprise networks. Lockdown Networks unique implementation of policy-driven vulnerability management continuously audits, prioritizes, reports and eliminates corporate network vulnerabilities enabling organizations to dramatically reduce the risk of attacks and track real-time information on network security health. The Lockdown Networks suite of high-performance scalable appliances includes the Lockdown(TM) Auditor, DataSafe, AuditPoint and Wireless Sentry.

Now, Dan does that sound like a purpose built NAC solution to you? Fact is the guts of Lockdowns product is still a nessus based vulnerability scanner. As far as being first along with Cisco. Again I think my proof lays that claim to bunk. Mitchell is right on in his article of who was there in the beginning, and it was not you pal. Not even close.  Dan, there is an old saying that the winners get to write history.  Well you haven't won just yet, so don't go around trying to rewrite history. When I am going to say something, I do my homework on it. And to Rob Gilde and Brett Helsel, guys this is exactly why I blog, to make sure that someone is here setting the record straight.  You have a problem with that, take it outside, you know how to reach me.