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Recent Enterprise Strategy Group research points to two evolving trends:

1. Information security practices are merging into other IT areas, such as regulatory compliance and IT operations.
2. Enterprise users are leaning toward integrated security suites rather than “best of breed” security products.

With these trends in mind, it is safe to assume that the market advantage goes to security vendors with integrated product portfolios that cover security, compliance, and IT operations. Firms like EMC’s RSA Security, McAfee, and Symantec are betting on this happening soon, but these industry heavyweights are not alone.

Case in point: Check Point Software Technologies. The company, best known for its pioneering firewalls and virtual private networks, may be the only one with a security portfolio that covers end points, networks, and data. McAfee is close, and all the others have a gap in their product line.

Of course, there are no guarantees here. Check Point’s firewall base is constantly challenged by Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, and the company has to throw some sales and marketing resources at its nonfirewall products to build more visibility.

This won’t be easy, but Check Point is building a new execution team that may be able to take it to the next level. Check Point has always had great technology; now it may finally be poised for another round of rapid growth.