Big Security, Inc. - Should we buy security from Walmart?

A few years ago Mike Rothman wrote about big being the new small.  Last year RSA president Art Coviello spoke about the death of the independent security vendor. Over the years the endless dance of consolidation continues on.  However these past few weeks it became very apparent to me what the real issue here is.  It seems that every day we see new announcements from McAfee or Symantec or Cisco. They have a new doodad for the SMB market, a new service for the mid-market, a new appliance for the enterprise market, a new web site for the consumer, and so on and so on.  It is a never ending stream of technologies and services aimed at the entire spectrum of different markets.  It reminds me of when I would be walking the streets of Manhattan and street vendors would have trays of fake name brand watches. But on second thought, the name brands are real.  it is more akin to buying security from Walmart.

Is buying security from Walmart good for us? There are many who say that buying anything from Walmart is not really good for the economy, but yet we still shop there.  For some things buying Walmart is fine.  Usually not if you want the best quality, service, etc. I think the same holds true for the Walmarts of security.  When Big Security tries to be everything to everyone, they wind up being nothing to no one.  No matter the resources targeting every market with every security related technology is just an impossible task. Yes you will have an offering, but it is it any good? Was there ever a clearer example of the Jack of all trades, master of none?

The question is will the buying public put up with it. Will we be content to all go down to the security Walmart and take whatever they have on the shelves or will we go with solutions that actually work and solve the problems that we need solved? Time will tell, but I believe quality always wins over mass market drivel.