RSA Conference:
Summary From Credit Suisse
The RSA Conference, the largest event for the information security industry,
will be hosted February 15-17, 2005 in San Francisco. Each year, this expo
produces several significant announcements pertaining to the security industry,
and we believe two themes will dominate this year's conference: 1) Microsoft's
security initiatives and 2) greater marketing surrounding authentication and
identity management. In the bullets below, we have presented a day-by-day
overview of the RSA Conference's noteworthy keynote speakers and our
expectations for the impact of those presentations.
Tuesday, February 15: "Is Today D-Day for Microsoft?" The RSA Conference
officially kicks off with Bill Gates' 8:35 AM PT keynote, "Security: Raising the
Bar." Gate's keynote represents the most anticipated event of the week, and we
believe that Gates will continue to speak aggressively regarding Microsoft's
efforts to enhance the security of its products-with particular focus around
malicious code. We expect Gates to discuss Microsoft's recent beta release of
its antispyware product and to present a roadmap for continued forays into
malicious code scanning-including an eventual combined antivirus/antispyware
solution. While we expect Gates to discuss these areas during his keynote, we
continue to believe that the most likely timing for Microsoft to enter the
traditional antivirus market with a generally available product, which we
believe will be a for-fee subscription service, to be the introduction of MSN 10
in the second half of 2005. Given our belief that Microsoft's initiatives will
dominate discussions around the expo, we would expect both Symantec and McAfee
to potentially come under pressure heading into and during the RSA Conference.
Also of note, Symantec's CEO John Thompson will present his keynote at 10:35 AM
PT on Monday as well.
Wednesday, February 16: "Another Sleeping Giant Speaks & Identity Management
Takes Stage." With his 8:45 AM PT keynote, "Building and Securing the
Intelligent Information Network for Competitive Advantage," we expect Cisco
Systems' CEO John Chambers to continue to discuss the company's architectural
approach to security. However, we do not expect significant announcements from
Cisco Systems. Directly following Chambers' keynote, we believe that Computer
Associates' Russell Artzt will focus on solutions to effectively manage
security, and we expect CA to significantly emphasize its acquisition of
Netegrity both in its keynote presentation and at its expo booth at the
conference.
Thursday, February 17: "More Authentication." Similar to Computer Associates
and RSA Security, we expect VeriSign's Stratton Sclavos's 9:45 AM PT keynote to
continue to focus on the increasing importance of identity management and strong
authentication.
Ultimately, we expect multiple announcements to emerge from this year's RSA
Conference and believe that investors must be well positioned heading into the
event.
AI
