The Paradigm Shift in IT Continues: Intel Buys McAfee
I highly recommend Larry Barrett’s August 20th article in CIO Update entitled Intel’s McAfee Buy Latest Sign of Sea Change in IT. In the second half of his article Barrett discusses how Intel’s acquisition of McAfee opens the door for Intel to become a key player in the mobile device and network security markets. I will discuss some of his key points later in this posting. However, what I found most interesting is his discussion in the first half of his article where he describes quite adroitly and with relative ease his perception of the “Sea Change” in the IT industry. Barrett lays out the salient points in rapid fire succession based on his perception that the arrival of wireless networks, smartphones, and the “consumers’ unquenchable thirst for mobile devices” has sparked an acquisition frenzy amongst the big IT players who have plenty of cash on reserve. For example, Google has gone from the prime search engine vendor to mobile devices, operating systems, Cloud Computing, and SaaS. He mentions Cisco Systems, IBM, and HP purchasing unified communications, network security, and business intelligence companies, all of these companies apparently outside of the acquirer’s original area of expertise.
And now Intel’s Security on a Chip:
This acquisition takes Intel in a totally different direction from its core business. Gartner security analyst, Peter Firstbrook, doesn’t believe you can build security on a chip:
"Security is dependent on the OS and the apps in the stack. You can't anticipate that in the chip."
However others are not so skeptical. They see the potential that exists for Intel to enter a whole array of markets from network security, to smartphones, to PC tablets, to the myriad of hardware and software these markets create. Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, stated that the purchase of McAfee and bringing security to the chip was
“not just the opportunity to co-sell but also the opportunity to deeply integrate into the architecture of our products."
