Legacy security vendors are 'the dinosaur in the tar pit' - Cylance

Cylance director Anton Grashion slams old guard for moving too slowly

Endpoint security newcomer Cylance has branded traditional security vendors "the dinosaur in the tar pit" as shots continue to be fired between the so-called old guard and next-gen players.

Insults between the two camps have become a regular occurrence, with Cylance often the centre of attention, and Cylance director Anton Grashion has now criticised legacy players for failing to adapt to a changing threat landscape, instead choosing to bolt on new technology.

"I sometimes say 'If you've got a problem with your car, giving it a paint job and putting spot lamps on makes it look nicer but it doesn't fundamentally effect what the problem is'," he said.

"All the legacy guys are using AI and machine learning as part of their pitch, as you would expect, but their biggest strength is their biggest weakness, and their biggest strength is their legacy.

"They are the dinosaur in the tar pit - up until now that has been a big advantage for them but now they're struggling to move quickly enough."

James Munroe, head of channel sales at Trend Micro, told CRN that many in the industry assume that innovation can only come from an emerging vendor, but that some of these start-ups actually lack the resources to take products to market successfully.

"There's a presumption that often only a start-up that is VC-backed can offer innovation and technology," he said. "I think that is quite frankly not true.

"The strength and stability of a vendor [like Trend Micro] means we can execute and we have the relevant research and development and resources behind us to actually take the new technology and the message out.

"How long are they going to be there and how committed are they to a channel, because we all know that if you're under pressure from VC your channel programme can quite quickly come under pressure if you're not hitting the numbers."

Carl Gottlieb, founder of security reseller and Cylance partner Cognition, said that it can be difficult for resellers to wade through the propaganda, adding that larger resellers are also partly to blame for the issues in the security sector.

He explained that bigger corporate resellers have established relationships with larger vendors that they are afraid of damaging, and because they carry so many vendors they have no need to champion the strongest solution for a particular customer.

"They will only have to sell you what you want," he said.

"There's no preference for them, so that doesn't push the industry forward, it just pushes the sales forward.

"It's very difficult to believe anyone when they have five different answers for you depending on what day it is."