With the close of the Dell-EMC deal Wednesday, RSA moves into the fold of Dell Technologies. What does that mean exactly for the future of EMC’s security division and its technologies?
For now, it is all about business as usual for the security division, Grant Geyer, RSA's senior vice president of products, said in an exclusive interview with CRN.
RSA will continue to operate as an autonomous brand under Dell Technologies, including around its product strategy, strategic relationships, customers and partners. Current President Amit Yoran will continue in his role leading RSA, Geyer said.
“It’s really business as usual for us and the Dell merger hasn’t changed any of the course or velocity that we’re executing on,” Geyer said. “Dell has been very clear that RSA will continue to maintain an autonomous brand while continuing to drive our autonomous product strategy and the ability to determine what relationships our customers need to maintain in terms of strategic partners and ecosystem we need to be successful,” he said.
Yoran echoed those sentiments in a blog post Wednesday.
“I am happy to tell you that RSA’s mission remains unchanged. And our commitment and passion to help our customers transform their security programs remain unchanged. RSA will continue to focus on delivering solutions that help enable our customers worldwide to create business-driven security strategies that connect business context with threat activities to more quickly and efficiently defend against cyber risk,” Yoran said. He said RSA will also continue to “enrich our channel.”
Geyer said that “business as usual” approach extends to the company’s partner program, which it launched earlier this year to reinvigorate its commitment to the channel. He said RSA does not “expect to see any change to that.”
“I think the most important thing from our perspective is we do no harm to partnerships we enjoy from the relationships we have in place. We have very clear messaging from Dell to give us that latitude,” Geyer said.
Geyer said CEO Michael Dell has also made it clear that security is part of the vision going forward for Dell Technologies, as it is a “core” piece of the business transformations that the new company is looking to enable. CMO Jeremy Burton echoed that sentiment in a blog post about the launch of Dell Technologies, saying the workforce demands a “security transformation” that addresses the move away from perimeter technologies and a rise in data protection.