FireEye, McAfee: A Promising Collaboration

Q: What gaps will be filled in FireEye and McAfee’s respective portfolios now that their merger is complete?

A: In this preliminary stage, there are still several undetermined variables but there are numerous areas in which FireEye and McAfee complement each other, naturally starting with endpoints. The traditional endpoint for FireEye has been EDR, while McAfee’s has been EPP. Although this specialization has given each company a market niche advantage, there has been a convergence of EDR and EPP over the last several years. Therefore, while there are certain providers that have a good mix of these endpoint services, combining our expertise in our respective fields was a common-sense decision for both parties.

There are numerous compatible components between FireEye’s Helix solution and McAfee’s Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), which is more of a traditional SIEM solution, which ultimately leads to our combined XDR strategy. Moreover, the synergy of FireEye’s Sandboxing technology, used by high-level clients, including governments around the world, with McAfee’s DLP, SWG and CASB solutions stand to generate new market opportunities around Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).

As you can see, there is huge potential for the combined company. We now have to determine how best to package, license and promote the new, enhanced, portfolio according to what makes the most sense for the market, especially for our MSSP partners. For now, we are talking to all stakeholders and gathering the required information. This process is still very much in its early stages but there are numerous exciting opportunities ahead.

Q: Why is there an emphasis on vectors and what is their importance in creating an extensible ecosystem?

A: All existing threats are not equal and do not approach a security infrastructure in the same way. For example, email as a threat vector is a prevalent point of access for malware, spearfishing attacks and others. Meanwhile, the cloud has become a favored pain point for both external and internal attacks. In recognition of the cybercriminal’s multivector approach, it was only logical to cover all possible vectors to give our customers complete protection.

What comes next is our XDR solution, which will bring all these tools together in a single ecosystem. It will have the capacity to understand habitual operation patterns and to automate security actions in real time instead of relying on manual input, which is a current constraint. This facilitates the security stack that our customers have adopted over the years. Overall, the goal is to identify where the customer needs help fortifying its security stack and simplifying this process. The client will always be able to continue building on as they scale outward and upward.

Q: What boost has the company received from Mexico’s accelerated digitalization and growing awareness of cybersecurity?

A: What we do is extremely relevant in the age of digitalization as reflected in our dramatic growth in Mexico and Latin America over the past several years. In the early days of the pandemic, companies tended to concentrate mainly on moving infrastructure off premises, or to the cloud, in a matter of months rather than their orginal, three-to-four-year plan. Overall, this rapid migration created a large opportunities for the cybersecurity sector overall, not just FireEye or McAfee.

Our individual growth, however, has been largely supported by customers who are riding the digital transformation toward cloud services, knowing that they are vulnerable and in recognition that they need to build a security system from the beginning and not after the fact. This is in addition to our consultative selling approach that aims to build a long-term relationship with our consumers by accommodating our customer-centric approach to their security needs.

Q: What objectives does the company have for the Mexican market in 2022?

A: We would like to maintain our aggressive growth rate, expanding geographically and continuing to help our customers transform safely during this accelerated period of digitalization. Moreover, we look forward to working closely with our McAfee teammates to get our joint project off the ground.

FireEye, founded in 2004, is a computer and networking security firm that delivers services through a cloud-based XDR platform.