First it was Caymas Systems, then it was Vernier Networks, now Lockdown Networks appears to be exiting the NAC market. Of course the obvious reaction as a competitor is to say good riddance, one less competitor to deal with. But to turn a quote on its ear, I write today not to bury Lockdown Networks, but to praise them. More than the other two NAC companies that have exited the market, I was personally in the loop on Lockdown Networks. I first heard about them when a VC friend of ours asked us about them years ago. This was when we were still planning Safe Access and Lockdown's business plan was vulnerability management. They had not raised money yet and were still in stealth mode. We thought of them as competition for our VAM product, but wanted to see what they would come up with. I stayed abreast watching their progress from afar. Some time later, when I was looking to put together a group of companies to form a coalition to develop an independent NASL script library, knowing that they used Nessus, I reached out to them.
This is when I first met Rob Gilde. Subsequently I also met Brett and most of the rest of the team there. I like Rob, he ran their product team, was knowledgeable and a nice guy in a west coast laid back kind of way. In short time it became apparent to me that Lockdown was looking to move out of the VM business. Rob realized that just scanning and reporting was not going to make it. He had the notion of adding enforcement to his vulnerability scanning. If you failed a vulnerability scan, you should be denied access to the network. My initial reaction was vulnerability scans are done mostly on servers, but Rob wanted to do vulnerability scans on endpoints. That is when I told him about our own product which we were about to release. Rob and the team re-tooled and released their Enforcer product some time later.
I personally always thought that doing SANS TOP 20 scans on endpoints was not where it was at in NAC, but Lockdown raised money from Intel and a bunch of other folks and was making a big splash in the heady, gold rush days of NAC. We ran into them on deals from time to time, especially in many of our major partner/OEM deals. The good news for us, is that just about all of the time, our product was picked over theirs.
Soon rumors were everywhere that Lockdown was on the block. Brett and team were looking to grab 20 or so major customers and quickly flip the company for a big win. Than we began hearing that they were looking for less and less money. Also, their PR began becoming more and more desperate. That is when I began calling them on it in my blogging. Evidently that got their attention. A few Interop shows ago, Rob called me over and said he and especially Brett were really upset I called them out. I apologized and said hey I call them as I see them. At RSA or another show after that Brett walked right by me and tried his best to diss me. People from NY don't get dissed that easy though. I just laughed it off, but it was the last time I spoke to anyone at Lockdown.
Recently we have begun to see a few customers that were choosing our Safe Access product to replace Lockdown's. I thought this was ominous for them, but hey good for us! I truly expected to hear any day of someone picking them up at a decent price. I didn't think it would just implode. In many ways a company shutting down is a death of a thousand dreams. The soaring aspirations of the founders, the individual sugar plum fantasies of the early hires, the VC's thinking this could be the big hit. Perhaps most sad of all, the customers who looked at the market and for whatever reasons decided that Lockdown offered them the best product for providing NAC and solving their problems. Those people made a bet that Lockdown would be there to solve the issues and provide a great solution. They as much as anyone lost that bet.
As they do on Ebay, here is a second chance for Lockdown customers. We will have on our web site a special offer to upgrade you to Safe Access and leverage your investment in Lockdown. Lockdown's misfortune does not have to be yours. We are here to help and are here to stay. So to all of Lockdown's customers, I am sorry you are left in a hard place here, but there is help.
To Brett, Dan Clark and the rest of the Lockdown crew, most especially to Rob Gilde, I offer my sympathies that this did not turn out better for you. You all made a great effort and you made us try harder which resulted in our product being developed faster than it would have otherwise. For that I thank you and wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. This song is for you:
