Chris "Obi Wan" Hoff wants to rely on the force to make Cobia dissapear

I know we must be on to something if Hoff is relying on the force to make you not pay attention to Cobia.  Now he wants to wave his hands and tell us to move on, nothing to see here. Of course he was watching Bill Maher when he wrote this, so I will give him some credit. The comedian on the panel was really funny and right on.  Anyway, Chris lets put this one to rest once and for all.

First as to what I mean by markets, technology, products, stand alone products, etc., let me be explicit as it seems you are pretty wrapped around the axle on this one.  When you say NAC and other products are moving from markets to features I disagree with your use of the word markets, not that I disagree that it is moving to a feature.  Maybe it is another kiwi thing or maybe it is my Long Island vernacular. What I think you mean when you say market, is what I call a stand alone product.  Another words, will people buy NAC as a single, stand alone product or as something integrated into the network (I know that makes you cringe or maybe even in a high end UTM).  If that is what you are saying Chris, I agree with you.  I think NAC will be integrated.  In fact we have several OEM and partnership deals that do just that.  That does not mean that NAC does not have a market in my mind though.  A market to me is, will someone pay for it. I think whether sold stand alone or integrated with other products, the value of NAC will still be important. It will be a factor when people pick one switch or product over another. NAC to me is a technology, whether it is a stand alone product or not, has again nothing to do with it is a market. By the same token, UTM perhaps is not a technology, but instead an amalgamation of technologies.  However, that does not mean that it could not be subsumed into something like UNP. 

The fundamental problem I have with what you are writing Chris, is you have negative connotations around the feature word and I do not.  We anticipated this happening to NAC when we originally designed Safe Access.  BTW, we thought the same thing would happen to IDS/IPS.  I think only someone who thinks that the network should be inherently dumb and that security ride as a layer above it, would find the product moving from stand alone to integration into the network such a negative. Does that sum it up Chris?

Now my young padawan, why don't you come over to the darkside and acknowledge that a Unified Networking Platform can turn UTM into a feature as well.  The truth will set you free Chris!