This was so insightful, especially for someone like me who has some experience working in the security field, but with knowledge and expertise that is limited.
Wow - I've never spent this amount of time reading a report.....very insightful. Excellent coverage. (Don't suppose you do the same coverage for the best thrash-metal bands?;-))
Excellent report vs. Gartner/Forrester analysis and highly relevant for more deep dive on each company. I have a similar question with Amir. By some analysis, MSFT is the largest security provider out there, ~$20B in revenue. Instead of stand-alone security offerings, MSFT's products are integrated with Windows and Azure. How would you assess it's impact on XDR and Cloud Security etc. Thanks again for sharing the write-up!
Thanks, Zong. Agreed, their security business is growing around 35-45% annually (had an IT spending hit last year) and because of their bundled offering they are getting more eyes now vs 5 years back. As I replied to Amir, in addition to that I do see them getting the market share from Symantec, Cylance, CB and others. In MOST of the deals, I see $S, $CRWD and $PANW fighting for it and $MSFT not even in picture. There could be several reasons that I mentioned in my reply to Amir, however, if they keep innovating (security copilot and others) and hiring great leadership team, they would definitely pose a threat to all three players.
Thanks Amir, hopefully it was helpful. Couple of points on Microsoft's endpoint offering, they have done an excellent job in their security offering over the last few years. Some folks might claim that they are playing on strong security capability however I would argue they are trying to capture the market with a more bundled offering, so it's a price war imo. Additionally, after speaking with several analysts, all of them have a similar concerns on feature backlog, overloaded information, limited integrations. They are moving fast to extend capability to linux and OSX based systems but other vendors are little ahead in their offerings. Let me know if you have questions, happy to break down further for you.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, Shubham. If they’re behind in Linux and OSX, makes sense they’re not part of key XDR conversations. But from a UX perspective, I think they have the most complete and end-to-end thought out solution. It will be interesting to see their impact on the XDR space. Their identity protection play is also interesting, something that Crowdstrike has turned into a $100 million ARR business after the Preempt acquisition.
Thanks, Amir. You made a solid point about the UX, just explore their career section, they have so many openings for security accessibility. They are putting a serious thought about it that even a differently abled person can understand security, hats off to Vasu Jakkal and team. Of course, competition is good for the industry overall and you can easily see that from the comments during the CNBC interviews of Jakkal and George Kurtz. IMO, Microsoft would be ONE of the important beneficiary of security consolidation, I would expect them to share an update on consolidation play in this or next earnings call.
This was so insightful, especially for someone like me who has some experience working in the security field, but with knowledge and expertise that is limited.
Thanks Ankita, hopefully it was helpful to you :)
Wow - I've never spent this amount of time reading a report.....very insightful. Excellent coverage. (Don't suppose you do the same coverage for the best thrash-metal bands?;-))
Thank you, Robin, for your kind words. Unfortunately, our tastes don't seem to match. However, if you ever feel like moving to jazz, do reach out! :P
Excellent report vs. Gartner/Forrester analysis and highly relevant for more deep dive on each company. I have a similar question with Amir. By some analysis, MSFT is the largest security provider out there, ~$20B in revenue. Instead of stand-alone security offerings, MSFT's products are integrated with Windows and Azure. How would you assess it's impact on XDR and Cloud Security etc. Thanks again for sharing the write-up!
Thanks, Zong. Agreed, their security business is growing around 35-45% annually (had an IT spending hit last year) and because of their bundled offering they are getting more eyes now vs 5 years back. As I replied to Amir, in addition to that I do see them getting the market share from Symantec, Cylance, CB and others. In MOST of the deals, I see $S, $CRWD and $PANW fighting for it and $MSFT not even in picture. There could be several reasons that I mentioned in my reply to Amir, however, if they keep innovating (security copilot and others) and hiring great leadership team, they would definitely pose a threat to all three players.
Excellent analysis. Good to see coverage outside of the usual Gartner/Forrester circles. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on Microsoft’s XDR play.
Thanks Amir, hopefully it was helpful. Couple of points on Microsoft's endpoint offering, they have done an excellent job in their security offering over the last few years. Some folks might claim that they are playing on strong security capability however I would argue they are trying to capture the market with a more bundled offering, so it's a price war imo. Additionally, after speaking with several analysts, all of them have a similar concerns on feature backlog, overloaded information, limited integrations. They are moving fast to extend capability to linux and OSX based systems but other vendors are little ahead in their offerings. Let me know if you have questions, happy to break down further for you.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, Shubham. If they’re behind in Linux and OSX, makes sense they’re not part of key XDR conversations. But from a UX perspective, I think they have the most complete and end-to-end thought out solution. It will be interesting to see their impact on the XDR space. Their identity protection play is also interesting, something that Crowdstrike has turned into a $100 million ARR business after the Preempt acquisition.
I look forward to reading more from you.
Thanks, Amir. You made a solid point about the UX, just explore their career section, they have so many openings for security accessibility. They are putting a serious thought about it that even a differently abled person can understand security, hats off to Vasu Jakkal and team. Of course, competition is good for the industry overall and you can easily see that from the comments during the CNBC interviews of Jakkal and George Kurtz. IMO, Microsoft would be ONE of the important beneficiary of security consolidation, I would expect them to share an update on consolidation play in this or next earnings call.
This was an incredible read, thanks for the comprehensive coverage and insights!
Thanks, Tejas.