Maginot Line

Thomas Noonan (formerly CEO of ISS and now, post acquisition, is an IBM VP responsible for the security business unit) is probably a really nice guy -- at least that's what he seems like when he's delivering a keynote as he did at Interop.  The problem that we have is about some of the content.  Last time we saw him speak was a year ago at the RSA conference when he seemed to get wrapped around an urban legend.  This time he went on and on trying to draw a parallel to today's perimeter based security systems and the Maginot Line -- the massive fortifications the French built between 1930's -- 1940's which utterly failed to stop the Germans who simply moved around it.  The analogy was along the lines of "the network perimeters that enterprises have built may be of little value when facing today's threats."  That might be true, but coming from the company that was one of the leading providers of the products that helped build this perimeter defense, you have to wonder whether what they're selling now will actually be of long term value or whether it's just another defense layer that will soon become obsolete.  Maybe it's time Mr. Noonan socializes his keynotes a little bit beforehand to see if they pass the giggle test.