As some of you may know Richard Stiennon and I have had our disagreements over the years around NAC.  But say what you want about Rich, at least he had the stones to ask what many of you would probably like to ask but wouldn't. Here is Rich's comment and my reply:

Posted by Stiennon: OK, so one well regarded security company turns out not to be that successful after all. As you point out Allen, from the press releases everything seemed like it was going great for Lockdown. As you know I think NAC is a waste of time (the health checking part, not the access control part). And of course I am going to say that companies founded on purely bad concepts like admission control are going to fail and Lockdown is a great example. So here is the question, thou supporter of NAC. How are we to know whether or not StillSecure is on the brink of shuttering its doors as well? How can you assure us that NAC is such a great concept that customers are beating down your doors to get some of that magic? Just wondering..... -Stiennon

Richard, first of all thanks for the opportunity to respond. Secondly, you would think after all this time you would know that my name is spelled Alan.  With that out of the way, lets dive in here. 

First of all on your characterization of NAC being all about health checking, Richard NAC has grown beyond that a long time ago and I don't see much sense in us wasting time on that one.  But for the record maybe you should let Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee and all the rest of the host based health checkers in on your revelation.

Next Richard, who said Lockdown was a well regarded security company and that it was founded on a pure concept of admission control?  You know what happens when you ass-u-me Richard, don't you?  I have been out here hammering on a lot of these companies that I don't think have real solutions.  There has been a ton of smoke and mirror games from marketing people (you wouldn't know about any of that would you Richard?).  When I called these companies on the BS, too many people said I was just being biased against them.

You don't see StillSecure putting out those kinds of releases. Fact is Lockdown with all due respect to the folks there, was set up from the beginning to be a quick flip.  It was a speculative an endeavor as some of the condo owners who are left holding the bag down here in South Florida.  They were going to do something around vulnerability management and flip this quick.  Richard, I have been there.  When you dress up a pig for market, often times you end up with a dressed up pig. No amount of lipstick is going to help. On the other hand, we just keep executing.  At the end of the day Richard, companies who succeed are companies that execute.  You have certainly been at your share of companies and should know that by now.

Now lets get down to brass tacks.  Just because Lockdown and a few other NAC companies that did not have competitive products went out of business, does that mean all NAC companies are going out of business?  Talk about painting with a broad brush Richard!  Thats like saying all analysts are ignorant because look how many times some of their predictions are wrong (anybody see any IDS out there today?)  Not all analysts are ignorant Richard, just the ones who keep making the wrong assumptions and predictions (and they usually wind up going to VP of marketing roles).  Cream always rises to the top Richard and quality never goes out of style. If you have a product that works and solves peoples problems you will do fine.

As far as living up to expectations, that is a question of whose expectations. It was no secret that the analysts were smoking their socks with some of the numbers being thrown around regarding NAC. The fact that you call it magic should not be lost on you or others.  NAC ain't magic, it is bread and potatoes security. Internally here at StillSecure we always had our own internal compass and business plan guiding us.  According to those, our NAC product is doing just fine, thanks! Also remember that StillSecure has a number of products that actually work well together, so we are not overly dependant on any one of our products.  That is smart business Richard. Again, to paraphrase Al Davis, "just execute baby!"

Are customers beating our door down?  I think so, but frankly our goal is to have our customers beat our partners doors down and that is happening too.  A key difference in our NAC plan was having distribution partners in the "network fabric". We have accomplished that goal and it serves us well. NAC for us continues to evolve and grow, but we are doing just fine with it.  We don't do rah, rah BS press release stuff, but you know Richard there is a saying in NY that I learned as a little boy growing up.  I am sure you probably never heard it in the mid-west.  It goes something like this:  "Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know"  Those that need to know about our financial position know.  The fact that you question our position I guess means you have been placed in the category of the don't need to knows. Sorry Richard.