Crossbeam Does What Check Point Couldn't

To date, the two vendors have issued no new announcements of formal alliances. But that hasn't stopped an enterprising partner from taking the initiative to get the two companies' technologies working together anyway.

Crossbeam Systems, a developer of unified threat management (UTM) solutions and services, has been deploying Check Point firewalls and Sourcefire IPS technologies side-by-side as part of its comprehensive UTM offerings, particularly in the company's sweet spot—service providers and large enterprises.

Crossbeam chief security strategist Christofer Hoff says using the two companies' technologies together helps Crossbeam fulfill its own mission. "Our goal is to provide our customers with a combination of best-of-breed security functionality that can deliver virtual security services," he says. "This gives our service providers a way to consolidate and integrate best-of-breed services functionality."

At this point, whether or not Check Point and Sourcefire ever get together again doesn't hold much relevance to Hoff and Crossbeam.

"Consolidation is always a concern because you can't identify what it might mean for the products at the time of the deal," he says. "The merger would have given Check Point a much more solid presence in the intrusion prevention space, but even if a company doesn't have a standalone product in a certain area, they still can build on their customer relationships with initiatives like ours."

But if, as has been speculated recently, Check Point itself merges with a like-sized company or gets acquired itself, Hoff and Crossbeam do have a wish list.

"We'd be very interested in making sure that whoever acquires them would be a large integrator or services company, because in many cases we'd probably have a relationship with that company already," he says.