Management deserves praise, not criticism
Those who would criticize management should go back and re-read the government .pdf on securing cyber space posted by x-point last week. It clearly spells out what has happened to delay deployment of TPMs and Wave's software.
In February, 2003, before Wave had really started to market anything like the systems they have today, the government put out their plan for securing cyberspace. The plan clearly states that the government would go through several steps in the process of making cyberspace secure. First, they were ordered to assess what threats existed. Next, the plan called for assessing what solutions were available to defeat the threats. The plan next called for a period of assessment for the solutions identified. When solutions were found to be effective, the plan called for the government to implement them across the entire spectrum of government activities. Finally, the plan calls for the government to encourage all other sectors to adopt the solutions, starting with government vendors-especially defense contractors. After that, cyberspace wouild be secure. This last part is critical. The government would be the defacto standard.
Now, what OEM or software company in their right mind would disregard this plan when the government stated that they would in essence be picking a uniform standard security solution and then pushing it's implementation? What company would move before they knew what the government would pick?
This plan put Wave on hold. No one was going to move too far until it became apparent what solutions the government would pick. In addition, we all know how the government can drag it's feet when making a big decision. Meanwhile, events played out in Wave's favor.
In 2003, the Mitre Corp., a government think tank, experimented with TPMs as a security solution. They became advocates for TPMs. That summer, Intel signed with Wave to produce motherboards with TPMs. This is no coincidence, IMO.
In 2004, Wave began trials at West Point. The government plan calls for "Red Team-Blue Team" review of the solution selected. If I am not mistaken, this is a military term for war games. I believe West Point was chosen as a small, self contained arena for a simulated cyber war against a TPM protected network. Once this was successfully concluded, and it looked like the government liked TPMs, we began to see movement within the industry to adopt TPMs on a widening scale.
During this time period, SS was seen with a very high powered military lobbyist/advisor. Again, no coincidence IMO. He was working to make sure that the right people were aware of the success of TPMs, and forming relationships that will now be paying off, hopefully in huge revenues for Wave.
Wave deals with STMicro, Atmel, and NTRU followed in short order, followed by Dell, etc. in 2005. The likelyhood of governmental adoption of TPMs pushed the OEM and software companies off the fence and into action. We now see an accelerating adoption of TPMs to be followed by real revenues for Wave. And that is not the best part! If the government sticks to their plan, they will be pushing all stae governments and also government vendors to adopt TPMs, which will mean they will need Wave.
IMO, Management has done a herculean job at guiding Wave's fortunes through this critical time. If they succeed, (and I believe they already have) Management will have moved the entire US government and military industrial compex to the use of TPms. It is clear that this has been a major part of their business plan, and it looks like they have executed it nearly perfectly.
Now, tell me again-Why should they be criticized? I can forgive a few small mistakes along the way. If they pull this off, they deserve a frickin' medal.
Just my opinion
goin fishn
AI
